Welp, that didn’t go as expected. A judge has declared a mistrial in the Bill Cosby sexual assault case after jurors failed to come to a verdict after days of deliberation.
Reports the New York Times:
The decision denied a measure of vindication either to Mr. Cosby or to the dozens of women who have accused him of assaulting them.
In their sixth day of deliberations, jurors sent word to Judge Steve T. O’Neill that they could not reach a unanimous verdict on the charges that in 2004, Mr. Cosby, one of the world’s best-known entertainers, drugged and assaulted Andrea Constand in his home near here.
The hung jury means that the Montgomery County District Attorney, Kevin R. Steele, must decide whether to retry the case. Once again, he will have to balance the fact that dozens of women who have leveled similar accusations at Mr. Cosby had looked to this case as likely the only chance to hold him criminally responsible, against the value of pursuing a 79-year-old defendant who is fighting blindness, whose career and reputation are in tatters, and for whom a prison term could amount to a life sentence.
The deliberations started Monday and went on longer than the actual trial.
No matter if you think Cosby is guilty or innocent, or if you believe or don’t believe the multitude of women who have accused Cosby of sexual assault, justice has NOT been served. Reportedly, prosecutors have already declared that they will retry the case.
There are still numerous civil cases against Bill Cosby going forward.
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Photo: EDUARDO MUNOZ ALVAREZ/AFP/Getty Images)
