Disclaimer: not an attorney, and don’t play one on TV. Not familiar with Pennsylvania law.

Can read a decision and have done so (link below).

I am biased to heck and gone over this case. It was painful to read the decision because Mr. Cosby made admissions in the civil suit that do disturb me – not as a woman, but as the little girl who so looked up to the man who, utterly unbeknownst to him, helped her through a very difficult time. It’s like learning that Superman cheated on Lois – and it hurts.

But that’s NOT why I think this case is important. Wrongful conviction is a growing and immense problem in the US. It’s the failings of our judicial system, not the so-called ‘War on Drugs’, that fill our prisons with people who’s guilt was NEVER proven in a court of law or, as in Mr. Cosby’s case, people who were denied the most important of their constitutional rights – the right not to self-incrimidate.

A lot of people think the Fifth Amendment is an unnecessary impediment to conviction. These folks are thinking about it all wrong – because we start with the premise that the guilty should be punished and the assumption that the accused are guilty. What we forget is that prosecutors only come in size human – and sometimes in size corrupt human. The system is deliberately balanced to prevent any one entity from having too much power and thereby gaining the ability to abuse that power. But that system has been undermined over the last six decades.

If you’re looking for someone to blame, start with the Republicans – but don’t stop there. The Republicans were the more responsive party as Americans demanded stronger penalties and more convictions in the face of spiking crime in the 1980’s and 1990’s. FYI, it was the improving economy and better efforts at policing, not mandatory sentencing and higher conviction rates that actually significantly reduced the levels of crime – and Republicans and Democrats both deserve credit on that success.

But the real place to start with the blame game is the mirror – it was the panicked public that demanded action from governments and then was willing to sacrifice civil rights in the name of safety. That’s what makes this case timely and important – we don’t need to repeat the same mistakes to restore order and reduce crime.

Most of 2020 and 2021 have been case studies in what happens when a segment of the population believes the judicial system – including the police – are inherently unfair and corrupt. Facts and statistics won’t win against years of unfavorable interactions with the judicial system. From allowing police to lie to suspects (thank you, US Supreme Court) to giving unfettered charging discretion to prosecutors (thanks again, Supreme Court) the foolish shift away from the strong individual rights to a ‘conviction at any cost’ mentality has destroyed confidence in the judicial system.

Mr. Cosby was given a written assurance from the prosecutor’s office that both the prosecutor and Mr. Cosby’s attorney understood at the time to mean that Mr. Cosby would not be criminally prosecuted over these allegations – ever. That’s critically important because with no possibility of criminal prosecution, Mr. Cosby did not have the Fifth Amendment to protect him in civil court. Basically, the prosecutor knew he couldn’t get a conviction so he promised no criminal prosecution which made suing Mr. Cosby in civil court much, much easier.

The prosecutor at the time acted in good faith (whether the Fifth Amendment should extend to civil law is a question for another day) to give the plaintiff a chance to seek justice civilly. I am no fan of criminal justice being pursued in the civil courts – it’s just another end run around the Constitution – but that’s how the law works now (and wanna guess who we can thank?) and the prosecutor did nothing improper here.

Fast forward to a new prosecutor who ignored the former promise (bear in mind, it’s the office, not the individual, making this promise so it IS binding on the new office holder) and decides to go forward with prosecution USING THE ADMISSIONS MADE IN THE CIVIL CASE!!!!!!

Translation, they denied Mr. Cosby his Fifth Amendment protection by using admissions that would likely never have been made had there been a known possibility of criminal prosecution. THIS is the kind of corrupt dealings that undermine the entirety of the judicial system. And not to punish some heinous crime (read the admissions of both sides for yourself in the decision), but to get a publicity charged case in front of the court of public opinion after a multi-million dollar settlement had already been made to the plaintiff.

What’s worse, is these convictions hide a much bigger problem – judicial incompetence. Those of you thinking ‘but they can’t get the crooks any other way’ are mistaken – these kinds of prosecutors and police are simply EXTREMELY BAD AT THEIR JOBS.

There are ways to interview suspects and get the information that will lead to a conviction. But it’s easier to lie.

There are ways to charge properly a case and get a just conviction. But it’s a LOT easier to blackmail the suspect into a guilty plea. Make no mistake, that’s what ‘plea bargaining’ really is – judicial blackmail.

There are ways to run a courtroom to ensure that whatever the verdict, it’s most likely correct. But it’s easier to let prosecutors get away with ‘unorthodox’ means that get higher conviction rates that look good for both the judge and the prosecutor, whether or not the conviction has anything to do with justice.

And that brings me back to this case. Yay, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court did the right thing. It only took nearly three years of WRONGFUL imprisonment.

Maybe we’re not discussing innocence – maybe we are – but the wrongful acts of the judicial system on even the guilty undermine any claims we have to a fair system in which we try diligently to punish the guilty and free the innocent. This case is part of what’s wrong with the system – and what we must fix.

Either we believe in Reasonable Doubt as the standard and that protecting the innocent is more important that punishing the guilty or we are on our way to destroying the Constitution that protects our freedoms.

All of them.

Decision of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court