With a ‘Hopelessly Deadlocked’ Jury, The Rape Case Against Bill Cosby Ends in a Mistrial
Prosecutors say they’ll re-try the case.
Disgraced comedy legend Bill Cosby got what may be a brief reprieve from courtroom drama Saturday when the jurors in his Norristown, PA trial for rape decided they couldn’t reach a verdict. The judge declared a mistrial and Cosby was free to go—for the moment.
BuzzFeed News reports that a jury composed of seven men and five women “spent more than 50 hours over six days reviewing testimony” in their efforts to reach a verdict, only to tell the judge they could not come to an agreement on the comedian’s guilt or innocence.
A reporter live-tweeting the aftermath of the mistrial noted that the judge informed Cosby he was still considered to be facing charges and still on bail. More importantly, perhaps:
DA Steele announces prosecution will retry the case.
— Claudia Rosenbaum (@CJRosenbaum) June 17, 2017
While this may be a temporary relief for the 79-year-old entertainer, he’s by no means done, as he’s faced dozens of accusations from a wide variety of women through the years, many remarkably similar.
As ABC News noted, in spite of Cosby’s denials that he ever did anything wrong, he did admit in depositions that he had given women Quaaludes in the past when he wanted to have sex with them.
Bebe Kivitz, the civil attorney for Cosby accuser Andrea Constand, said they are prepared for a retrial. BuzzFeed reports she followed that up with “Can we come back tomorrow?”
Mistrial or not, there are still plenty of reasons to think Bill Cosby will live out his twilight years in prison.
h/t BuzzFeed News, ABC
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