Bill Cosby to be released from prison, charges dropped
Cosby will be released from prison after serving two years of his three- to 10-year sentence after his sexual assault conviction was overturned by Pennsylvania’s highest court.
"The Cosby Show" actress Phylicia Rashad is backtracking an earlier statement in which she celebrated the shocking news that her longtime TV husband Bill Cosby’s sex assault conviction had been overturned by Pennsylvania’s highest court.
"I fully support survivors of sexual assault coming forward," she wrote. "My post was in no way intended to be insensitive to their truth. Personally, I know from friends and family that such abuse has lifelong residual effects. My heartfelt wish is for healing."
Earlier on Wednesday, Rashad praised the ruling, stating "a miscarriage of justice is corrected!"
"FINALLY!!!! A terrible wrong is being righted- a miscarriage of justice is corrected!" Rashad wrote to accompany a photo of her former co-star.
Rashad played Clair Huxtable from 1984 through 1992, working alongside the disgraced actor who player Dr. Cliff Huxtable on the NBC program.
BILL COSBY’S SEX ASSAULT CONVICTION OVERTURNED BY PENNSYLVANIA COURT
Cosby served more than two years of a three- to 10-year sentence at a state prison near Philadelphia. He had vowed to serve all 10 years rather than acknowledge any remorse over the 2004 encounter with accuser Andrea Constand.
Cosby, 83, who was once beloved as "America’s Dad" while working alongside Rashad, was convicted of drugging and molesting the Temple University employee at his suburban estate.
"The Cosby Show" co-star Phylicia Rashad celebrated the shocking news that her longtime TV husband Bill Cosby’s sex assault conviction was overturned Wednesday by Pennsylvania’s highest court. (Photo by Al Levine/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images via Getty Images) (Al Levine/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images via Getty Images)
PHYLICIA RASHAD ACCUSED OF ENABLING BILL COSBY BY TWITTER TROLL, FANS RUSH TO HER DEFENSE
The former "Cosby Show" star was charged in late 2015 when a prosecutor armed with newly unsealed evidence — Cosby’s damaging deposition from her lawsuit — arrested him days before the 12-year statute of limitations expired.
The trial judge had allowed just one other accuser to testify at Cosby’s first trial when the jury deadlocked. However, he then allowed five other accusers to testify at the retrial about their experiences with Cosby in the 1980s.
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court said that testimony tainted the trial, even though a lower appeals court had found it appropriate to show a signature pattern of drugging and molesting women.
Rashad has previously defended her former on-screen husband, most notably in a 2015 interview with ABC News in which she clarified previous statements in which she was quoted as saying "forget those women."
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"That was a misquote, that is not what I said," she clarified at the time. "What I said is this is not about the women. This is about something else. This is about the obliteration of legacy."
Rashad maintained her position at the time that the allegations were false and that the women coming forward had an interest in tarnishing the comedian’s storied legacy in show business. She was accused earlier this year of enabling her former co-star by critics on social media but didn’t directly respond to the allegations.
Fox News’ Sasha Savitsky, Tyler McCarthy and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
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