But in its 6-1 ruling, the Pennsylvania Supreme Courtroom uncovered that Mr. Cosby had, in point, relied on Mr. Castor’s assurances that he wouldn’t be prosecuted and that the subsequent decision by a successor to cost Mr. Cosby violated the entertainer’s thanks method legal rights. The court docket barred a retrial, although two of the judges who voted in the majority dissented on that treatment.
“Petitioning to inquire the Higher Court for critique was the correct thing to do,” Montgomery County District Legal professional Kevin R. Steele explained Monday in a assertion, “because of the precedent established in this case by the vast majority impression of Pennsylvania Supreme Courtroom that prosecutors’ statements in press releases now seemingly make immunity.”
The district attorney’s place of work referenced an argument set forward by 1 of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court docket justices, Kevin Dougherty, who stated in an opinion that no district attorney experienced the “power to impose on their successors — in perpetuity, no much less — the kind of non-prosecution agreement that Castor sought to convey to Cosby.”
In their 33-web page filing, the prosecutors also tried using to counter the argument that Mr. Cosby experienced a appropriate to depend on what Mr. Castor claimed was a guarantee not to prosecute him even more, asserting that “a reasonably prudent individual would have been reckless to count on a meant promise that the prosecutor did not obviously express and could not have experienced the electricity to grant.”
Because currently being freed, Mr. Cosby, 84, has portrayed the final decision as a total exoneration. The main justice of the Pennsylvania large court docket, Max Baer, has reported, even though, that the court’s ruling did not uncover Mr. Cosby innocent, only unfairly prosecuted.
Patricia Steuer, 65, who has accused Mr. Cosby of drugging and assaulting her in 1978 and 1980, mentioned that while she appreciated the energy to enchantment what she seen as a flawed decision, she was not optimistic about the end result.
“It never occurred to me that they’d petition to the U.S. Supreme Court,” she claimed. “I’m grateful for that, but I really don’t have a great deal of hope that he’ll stop again in jail.”
Julia Jacobs contributed reporting.