The Supreme Court on Monday dropped an opinion from Pennsylvania's highest court, which overturned comedian Bill Cosby's sexual assault conviction, rejecting a bid by Pennsylvania prosecutors to review the decision.
Cosby was convicted of aggravated indecent assault in 2004 to drug and sexually assaulted Andrea Constand at her Pennsylvania home in 2018. He was sentenced to three to 10 years in state prison.
He was released from prison in June after the state Supreme Court overturned his sexual assault sentence on the grounds that his due process rights were violated. Judges of the Supreme Court of the state of Pennsylvania said in their opinion that his statement in a civil case was ultimately used in the trial against him in lieu of a former Montgomery County district attorney's 2005 decision not to prosecute Cosby.
In a statement on behalf of Cosby and his family, campaigner Andrew Wyatt praised the judges for "abiding by the rules of law and protecting the constitutional rights of all American citizens."
"Mr. Cosby's constitutional rights were a 'reprehensible bait and switch' by Kevin Steele, Judge Steve T. O'Neill and their peers," Wyatt said. "It's really a victory for Mr. Cosby, but it shows that fraud will never take you far in life and that the corruption that lies within the Montgomery County District Attorney's Office has been brought to the center of the world."
The Montgomery County District Attorney's office, which led the high-profile court case against Cosby, said in November that the main question of the appeal centered around the 14th Amendment and the right to due process.
"The question presented in court is: 'Where a prosecutor publicly declares that he will not file a criminal charge on the basis of a lack of evidence, does the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment convert that declaration into a binding promise that any Even the charge will never be filed, a promise that the target can rely on it as if it were a grant of immunity?'" the release said.
As the decision stands now, it could have "far-reaching negative consequences" nationwide, District Attorney Kevin Steele said in a statement.
The justices on Monday dismissed the plea to take up the matter without any comment.
Cosby's attorney, Jennifer Bonzen, urged the court not to interfere.
"Under the unique facts of the case, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court concluded that [the former district attorney] had made an unconditional promise of non-prosecution, and Cosby had relied on his promise, namely omitting his Fifth Amendment guarantees and Testified over four days' statement and said that as a matter of fundamental fairness, the promise should be implemented," she said.