WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court said Monday it will not take up the sexual assault case against comedian Bill Cosby, leaving in place a decision by Pennsylvania's highest court to throw out his conviction and set him free from prison.
The high court declined prosecutors' request to hear the case and reinstate Cosby's conviction. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court last year threw out Cosby's conviction, saying the prosecutor who brought the case was bound by his predecessor’s agreement not to charge Cosby.
Cosby’s lawyers have long argued that he relied on a promise that he would never be charged when he gave damaging testimony in an accuser’s civil suit in 2006.
Prosecutors said the ruling could set a dangerous precedent if convictions are overturned over dubious closed-door deals. They have also complained that the chief judge of the state’s high court appeared to misstate key facts of the case when he discussed the court ruling that overturned Cosby’s conviction in a television interview.
“This decision as it stands will have far-reaching negative consequences beyond Montgomery County and Pennsylvania. The U.S. Supreme Court can right what we believe is a grievous wrong," Montgomery County District Attorney Kevin Steele wrote in the petition, which seeks a Supreme Court review under the due process clause of the U.S. Constitution.
As is typical, the Supreme Court did not say anything in rejecting the case. The case was included in a long list of cases the court said Monday it would not hear.
The 84-year-old Cosby became the first celebrity convicted of sexual assault in the #MeToo era when a jury in 2018 found him guilty of drugging and molesting Temple University employee Andrea Constand in 2004. A jury had previously deadlocked in Cosby's case, resulting in a mistrial in 2017.
Cosby spent nearly three years in prison before Pennsylvania’s high court ordered his release.
The Associated Press does not typically identify people who say they are victims of sexual assault unless they grant permission. Constand has done so.
