The US Supreme Court on Monday rejected an appeal to overturn the conviction of former TV star Bill Cosby, who was released last year after being convicted in 2018 of sexual assault.
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Kevin Steele, prosecutor for Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, petitioned the high court in November 2021 to review the decision of the Supreme Court of this northeastern United States state to overturn the sentence against the actor because of incriminating testimony deemed contrary to criminal law.
This decision was seen by many as a snub for the #MeToo movement against violence against women.
The highest American legal body indicated on its website that this appeal was “dismissed”, without explaining its decision.
Bill Cosby, who was released June 30, 2021, had been incarcerated since 2018 for the 2004 sexual assault of Andrea Constand, a woman who worked for Temple University in Philadelphia.
The first prosecutor responsible for the file had decided in 2005 not to prosecute Mr. Cosby in criminal proceedings, while encouraging him to testify in a civil proceeding brought by the complainant, which he had agreed to do.
During this hearing, the actor had admitted having given Andrea Constand a sedative before having a sexual relationship with her, according to him consented because she had not protested or expressed her disapproval.
However, this testimony was then used against him during his criminal trial when a new prosecutor, Kevin Steele in this case, decided to relaunch the case years later.
Bill Cosby, 84, appealed his conviction to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.
William Henry Cosby, Jr, of his full name, was sentenced in 2018 to a minimum sentence of three years in prison (10 years maximum), and had already spent almost three behind bars.
Considered the embodiment of the ideal father in his television show, the actor, one of the first African-Americans to break into the small screen, was accused by around sixty women of sexual assault and sometimes rape, covered by prescription.