Incarcerated comedian Bill Cosby has been granted an appeal in his sexual assault case.
Cosby has won the right to fight his 2018 sexual assault conviction in the Pennsylvania supreme court, in a stunning decision that could test the legal framework of #MeToo cases.
The 82-year-old Cosby has been imprisoned in suburban Philadelphia for nearly two years after a jury convicted him of drugging and sexually assaulting a woman at his home in 2004. He’s serving a three- to 10-year sentence.
According to reports, the state supreme court has agreed to review two aspects of the case, including the judge’s decision to let prosecutors call five other accusers to testify about long-ago encounters with the once-powerful actor and comedian.
Cosby’s lawyers have long challenged that testimony as remote and unreliable. The court will also consider, as it weighs the scope of the testimony allowed, whether the jury should have heard evidence that Cosby had given sedatives to women in the past.
Secondly, the court will examine Cosby’s argument that he had an agreement with a former prosecutor that he would never be charged in the case. Cosby has said he relied on that agreement before agreeing to testify in the trial accuser’s civil lawsuit.
Cosby’s lawyers also challenged his classification as a sexually violent predator subject to lifetime supervision.
Those issues have been at the heart of the case since Cosby was charged in December 2015, days before the 12-year statute of limitations expired.