Bill Cosby’s Co-Star Celebrated His Release From Sexual Assault Conviction
Not everyone was enraged when Bill Cosby was released from prison Wednesday. A former co-star actually celebrated it on social media
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Bill Cosby was released from prison on Wednesday leaving more than a few people shocked, confused, and dismayed. It was a surprising reversal on his previous conviction and he became a free man. But not all were upset about what happened with Cosby. In fact, someone closely tied with the actor and comedian took to social media to trumpet the court’s decision. Phylicia Rashad was downright happy about the decision if her Twitter account is any indication.
Rashad took to the social media platform following the Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s decision to release Bill Cosby allowing him to leave prison. She didn’t mix words about how she felt and was quick to side in her former colleagues’ camp. Here’s what she had to say in the moments following the decision:
There were no comments on this post from Phylicia Rashad regarding the Bill Cosby decision which is a good thing in that there’s almost no doubt it would have been summarily ratioed to oblivion. To say that Cosby’s release was met with public derision is an understatement. Rashad quickly became a lightning rod for this backlash and quickly tweeted out a response:
Much of the pain and confusion around it stems from that it seems to have come down to a legal glitch more than a true decry of innocence from the courts. That’s because the Supreme Court made a decision about Bill Cosby and the remaining years on his sentence based on a due process violation rather than new evidence suggesting he was innocent of his previously convicted crimes.
The court ruled that a previous 2005 civil case in Pennsylvania had required Bill Cosby to give a deposition. In exchange for that, it was agreed that he wouldn’t be prosecuted for a criminal case. But then later, District Attorneys took up the case against Cosby, ignoring that previous agreement. In this, the Supreme Court said the legality around his original conviction was in question. This violated legal precedents and made for grounds to wipe away the previous conviction. He was released from prison in Philadelphia.
While Phylicia Rashad might have been happy with the decision to release Bill Cosby, for the time being, she seems to be in the minority there. Many others have cited that though this case involving Cosby and then Temple University student Andrea Constand was what landed him in jail, there was no shortage of accusers who’ve come out speaking about Cosby’s treatment of them in the past.
Meanwhile, Phylicia Rashad who is now a Howard University Dean of the newly minted Chadwick A. Boseman College of the Fine Arts has come to the defense of Bill Cosby from the beginning when accusations were originally made about the actor. Rashad co-starred with him as his on-screen wife for many years on The Cosby Show. She’d publicly backed him in the past regarding the conviction and apparently does to this day. Time will tell how the rest of the Bill Cosby story plays out for the 83-year-old. There could be more accusations or additional cases in the works. But for now, he is a free man with the support of at least one former co-worker.
