June 23 (UPI) — The Pennsylvania Supreme Court agreed Tuesday to review former television star Bill Cosby’s 2018 sexual assault conviction.
Cosby, 82, was sentenced to three to 10 years in state prison after a jury found him guilty of sexually assaulting Andrea Constand at his home in 2004. The conviction was upheld in December by three-judge appellate panel.
But the state Supreme Court, in a brief order, agreed to consider two issues arising from the appeal, including whether the trial judge erred in allowing prosecutors to call five other accusers to back Constand’s allegations.
Cosby’s attorneys contend the witnesses were called to establish a “propensity” to commit a crime and improperly created an “assumption of guilt.”
The high court also agreed to consider Cosby’s contention that he never should have been charged due to the terms of a deal made with a former district attorney.
It declined, however, to hear two other defense arguments.
“We’re extremely thankful to the State Supreme Court of Pennsylvania for agreeing to review Mr. Cosby’s appeal,” spokesman Andrew Wyatt said in a statement, adding that “the false conviction” of Cosby is really about “the destruction of ALL Black people and people of color in America.”
