Bill Cosby conviction overturned: Released from jail

Written by on July 1, 2021

By Melissa Mahtani, Melissa Macaya, Mike Hayes, Veronica Rocha and Fernando Alfonso III, CNN

Updated 7:36 p.m. ET, June 30, 2021
  • Bill Cosby has been released from prison after the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania vacated his 2018 conviction on sexual assault charges and judgment of sentence, according to a courts spokesperson.
  • Cosby was sentenced in 2018 to 10 years in a state prison for drugging and sexually assaulting Andrea Constand at his home 14 years ago.

Cosby accuser says overturned conviction “doesn’t make him innocent”

From CNN’s Josiah Ryan

Lise-Lotte Lublin who accused Bill Cosby of drugging and sexually assaulting her in 1989 when she was 23 years old said the comedian’s overturned conviction on a procedural technicality does not make him innocent.

“He’s not innocent,” said Lublin. “He’s a notorious rapist and he just got away with it.”

Lublin also indicated she and other accusers would continue to seek justice despite daunting legal hurdles ahead.

“This just means something went wrong in the system,” said Lublin, speaking on CNN. “This a part of why we fight to change laws to change statute of limitations. Why would anyone even have a statute on personal harm?”

Cosby was released from prison after the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania vacated his 2018 conviction on sexual assault charges and judgment of sentence. He was sentenced in 2018 to 3 to 10 years in a state prison for drugging and sexually assaulting Andrea Constand at his home in 2004.

Elie Honig, a CNN senior legal analyst and former federal and state prosecutor, said the only place to appeal an opinion from the Pennsylvania’s highest court is the US Supreme Court.

“There is no way the US Supreme Court will take this case. … The court says you cannot retry him for this particular victim,” he said of Constand. “We know that the statute of limitations has passed for many of these victims.”

Lublin, for her part, said that despite today’s outcome she feels partial justice had already been irreversibly served.

“He did spend time in jail,” she said. “Time is time. He can never get that back.”

“He has become this infamous person versus a famous person, and he is going to have to deal with that,” she added. “His consequences aren’t over. He still has to walk through all of this shame.”

Tagged as

Current track

Title

Artist

Background