Bill Cosby’s Sexual Assault Charges Overturned

​

----- TW: sexual assault and rape -----

 

On July 1st, 2021, Bill Cosby was released from prison after the Pennsylvania Supreme Court overturned his sexual assault charges, yet this was done with the knowledge that he is in fact not guilty. This series of events has caused much confusion, however the answer as to why this happened lies in a courtroom sixteen years ago, where Cosby is offered a deal. 

 

In 2005, Cosby was charged with a lawsuit by Andrea Constand, who was sexually assaulted by him in 2004. Bruce Castor, who was the district attorney for Montgomery County, is the one who decided to not convict Cosby and instead offer him this promise.

 

During this trial, Cosby was going to invoke his fifth amendment right, which essentially states that you do not have to testify against yourself in a criminal case. To avoid this, Castor promised him he wouldn’t be charged if he testified and therefore, Cosby admitted to getting access to drugs and then drugging women to rape them. However, this confession meant nothing in the grand scheme of things because even though Constand gained almost four million dollars from this lawsuit, her rapist was a free man. 

 

Between then and now, sixty women have come forward to say that Bill Cosby raped and sexually assaulted them. However, at his retrial, in an attempt to have all these charges dropped, Castor is called in as a witness and explains his promise and that he did it in an attempt to give Andrea Constand justice. The trial judge didn’t even feel as though such a claim was valid and had the case passed to the highest court in the land of that state, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, where his 2018 conviction for sexual assaults are dropped because the Supreme Court agreed with Castor’s pinky promise. 

 

This is a reoccurring event within our society of powerful men getting away with virtually anything. Bill Cosby is a rapist and that is a fact. Him walking away is not a demonstration of a failed system, but a system that will always benefit the wealthy and the powerful. Not to mention that Castor felt as though four million dollars was justice for Ms. Constand-- as though that could undo the trauma of being drugged, raped, and then letting your worst nightmare walk free so he can just do it again, which is exactly what he did. 

 

This is why rape and sexual assault victims are so hesitant to come forward with their stories because even if they do, the system fails them, and they are quite literally alone. Cosby will never pay for his crimes, along with many A-list celebrities and frankly, just regular men who think they have power over women.