Kevin Steele, the prosecutor who put legendary actor and comedian Bill Cosby, 84, in jail in 2018, has filed an appeal to the United States Supreme Court to reinstate Cosby’s conviction.
Prosecutors urged the U.S. Supreme Court to reinstate Bill Cosby’s sexual assault conviction, complaining in a petition released Monday the verdict was thrown out over a questionable agreement that the comic claimed gave him lifetime immunity.
The state Supreme Court ruled that Cosby’s deal with former prosecutor Bruce Castor should have been honored. In a phone call with Cosby attorney Jennifer Bonjean, she states, “I am thrilled! I haven’t made my way through the entire opinion yet, but it seems that the court agrees with what we knew all along, that Mr. Cosby never should have been prosecuted in the first place. If a prosecutor’s word is not his bond, then we as a society — and the entire criminal justice system — is in trouble.”
In the new petition, filed on Thursday, January 9, 2020, Cosby’s lawyers also want the high court to consider the impact of the #MeToo movement and what they said is “public hysteria,” which influenced the prosecution and outcome.
Activists and supporters fighting for the release of 64-year-old journalist/activist Mumia Abu Jamalsay they weren’t shocked but heavily condemned Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner for appealing the ground-breaking decision by Pennsylvania Common Pleas Court Judge Leon Tucker granting him a new appeal hearing.