Home » Bill Cosby has been released from prison

Comments

Bill Cosby has been released from prison — 11 Comments

  1. The DA who prosecuted Cosby knew of former DA Castor’s agreement with Cosby and either knew or had the resources to determine that then prosecuting Cosby would be a blatant violation of his 5th Amendment Right. The only appropriate consequence for the prosecuting DA’s misconduct is permanent disbarment.

    In order to be effective, consequences must be personal.

  2. Cosby paid a big price for not following the ‘woke’ narrative. It is good that he is out of prison. Unless the left starts taking accusations seriously from victims of Bill Clinton and Joe Biden, they do not have a case.

  3. The prosecuting DA, as I understand it, was a junior prosecutor on the aforementioned case, and so could not have been unaware of the arrangement surrounding the deposition. The #MeToo issues were running hot then, providing fertile ground for self-aggrandizement schemes – and as we have all seen (both this week and the past few years), this appears to be the Golden Age for prosecutorial discretion at a breathtaking scale – both to ignore obvious and easily-proven crimes that carry a big cost to society because of their visibility, as well as grandstanding prosecutions like this one (or like the Trump case this week).

    I’m not a legal expert in any way, but it surprises me that this could exist as a feature in the national legal culture. What are the checks and balances, besides the electoral process? Is there no censure function? Is this an exploited feature that has landed us with all of these Leftist prosecutors who managed to gain office with flush Dark-money campaign accounts and no past experience as prosecutors? What would the reform look like?

  4. The prosecuting DA, as I understand it, was a junior prosecutor on the aforementioned case, and so could not have been unaware of the arrangement surrounding the deposition.

    Did the previous district attorney publicly object to the prosecution of the case or not? Is it so that junior prosecutors never associate with people who read newspapers?

  5. ” For one thing, the conviction occurred at the height of MeToo.” [Neo]

    If you are correct (and I agree that this had an influence) it is another demonstration of how our justice system can be tainted and actually perverted by popular demand. Is this any different than ascribing the political demeanor of judges by referring to those who appointed them (an Obama appointment, a Trump appointment)?

    I think that, to a certain point, this has always been present in the justice system, but the extent to which pitchforks and firebrands can influence a judicial process or decision in today’s age where any nut-case has access to an international megaphone is as terrifying as the judges, prosecutors. and defense attorneys willing to be influenced by them.

  6. Just a man-on-street observation:

    1. The original prosecutor agreed not to use the deposition in court, the following prosecutor should have honored the agreement.

    2. Right or wrong, the depo was released and the public read Cosby’s confession to the crimes.

    3. Cosby was convicted and sentenced to 3 – 10 years in prison.

    4. He is 83 y/o, has served 2-1/2 years. With good behavior points, he would have been released around this time anyway.

    In fairness under the law, Cosby should not have been prosecuted nor served any time. It really rankles, but overturning his conviction was the only legal decision for the judge. However, we still know two things to be true – 1) Bill Cosby raped the women; 2) OJ Simpson killed Nicole and Ron.

  7. Indigo Red:

    If you read the older posts of mine I linked, about the Cosby trial and the deposition, I think you’ll see that the deposition doesn’t quite say what I believe you think it says.

  8. Neo, You are correct. Cosby was very careful not to outright confess to drugging and raping. He admitted to buying the ‘ludes with the purpose of having sex with the women, that he believed the accepting of the drugs ad the sex was consensual. He had previously made it clear in his stand-up act that he had been using quaaludes to have sex from an early age and praised their effectiveness. He knew exactly what he was doing and did not think it was wrong or illegal. The depo did not reach a legal standard for either prosecution or conviction. I am just a man-on-the-street and to me and all my street mates, Cosby is guilty, and as much as said so and I don’t really care the size of the glove Simpson or Cosby claims. They were both lucky. They were both guilty.

    I was an alternate juror in Orange County, CA. The particulars don’t matter, I had a gut feeling the man was guilty as hell, but the prosecution utterly failed to prove their case. Had I been a deciding juror, my vote was not guilty. However, the sitting jurors found guilt very quickly. I do understand the difference between court and street standards of guilty, not guilty, and innocence (which is not a legal finding.) The prosecution could and did not prove Cosby’s guilt, and Cosby did not have to prove himself not guilty, but he certainly is not an innocent man.

  9. Indigo Red:

    I was responding to this statement of yours, specifically the word “know”: “we still know two things to be true – 1) Bill Cosby raped the women…”

    I “know” no such thing. Some people certainly think it very very strongly. But there is no compelling evidence of it. Cosby’s deposition certainly doesn’t prove it.

    In several of those previous posts that I linked, I wrote that on the whole I suspect that Cosby most likely was guilty. But that’s just a hunch. I have significant doubt about whether I’m correct.

    What do we know? We know that Cosby was unfaithful, and liked kinky sex involving drugs, and that many women were part of that, either voluntarily or involuntarily. It’s the answer to the “voluntary or involuntary” question that’s unclear. We know what they said many many years later, when there was gain to be had from saying it. But unfortunately we don’t know what actually happened at the time in terms of the element of consent.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.

HTML tags allowed in your comment: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>