Bill Cosby’s Case Could Be Headed to the Supreme Court

The U.S. Supreme Court is possibly getting involved in Bill Cosby’s case after prosecutor Kevin Steele filed an appeal seeking to reinstate his conviction. Earlier this year, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court overturned the comedian’s 2018 conviction after serving over two years in prison, saying that the then-prosecutor Bruce Castor’s decision not to pursue the case should’ve prevented Cosby from being prosecuted in 2015. Steele now wants the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene.

“A prosecution announcement not to file charges should not trigger due process protections against future criminal proceedings because circumstances could change, including new incriminating statements by the accused,” Steele argued in the petition, per Variety, calling the court’s previous ruling “a dangerous precedent.” 

Cosby’s spokesperson Andrew Wyatt denounced the appeal, dismissing the development in a statement. “There is no merit to the DA’s request which centers on the unique facts of the Cosby case and has no impact on important federal questions of law,” Wyatt said. “This is a pathetic last-ditch effort that will not prevail. The Montgomery County’s DA’s fixation with Mr. Cosby is troubling to say the least,” Wyatt said in response.

Cosby was convicted and sentenced to three to 10 years behind bars for sexually assaulting Andrea Constand in his home in 2004. He served nearly three years in prison before he was released in June. The prosecutor’s office says the problem with the court’s ruling has to do with concerns relating to the Constitution’s due process clause. “The question presented to the Court is: ‘Where a prosecutor publicly announces that he will not file criminal charges based on lack of evidence, does the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment transform that announcement into a binding promise that no charges will ever be filed, a promise that the target may rely on as if it were a grant of immunity?’” a press release states. 

Cosby has yet to do any high-profile interviews since his release and has remained very private. He’s also been denied from stepping back on stage as a comedian, despite Wyatt’s promises that he would one day make a comeback and go on tour.