The Supreme Court says that it will not hear the sexual assault case against Bill Cosby, meaning the entertainer will remain a free man.
The decision by the United States' highest court means that a ruling by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court to throw out Cosby's conviction last year will stand, ending the possibility of the 84-year-old having his jail sentence reinstated.
As is customary, the Supreme Court did not provide any reasoning or other context for its decision not to hear the case, which was including in a longer list of applications that the court has declined to take up.
Cosby spent almost three years in prison after being found guilty of drugging and assaulting Andrea Constand in 2004. He was freed midway into his three- to 10-year sentence in July last year after Pennsylvania's highest court ruled that the prosecutor who had brought the case against Cosby was bound by his predecessor's agreement not to charge the actor.
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The court ruled that the prosecutor's failure to follow the original agreement was an 'affront to fundamental fairness' that left the court with no option but to overturn the conviction and bar any future prosecution of the case, per AP.
Cosby, who was convicted and sentenced in 2018 following a mistrial in 2017, was the first celebrity to be tried and found guilty of sex offences in the wake of the #MeToo movement, which was spurred by allegations made against Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein in late 2017.
He was first arrested prior to the start of the movement in 2015, days before the statute of limitation in Constand's case against him was set to expire.
Dozens more women have accused Cosby of sexual assault and rape – allegations he has denied – with several claiming that he drugged them with qaaludes before assaulting them.
In a deposition given under oath in 2005, the Cosby Show actor admitted to offering women quaaludes 'the same as a person would, say, have a drink', claiming he did not do so without their knowledge, per the The New York Times.
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In the wake of the decision to overturn his conviction last year, one of his accusers, Therese Serignese, called the verdict a 'miscarriage of justice', saying: 'This is about procedure. It’s not about the truth of the women.'
Serignese added that the three years Cosby served in prison was 'as good as it gets in America' for victims of sexual abuse.
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