Bill Cosby found guilty

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woolfe9998

woolfe9998

Lifer
Apr 8, 2013
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ch33zw1z said:
I'm not a legal expert by any stretch. It just says that a previous prosecutor had decided not to charge him. How is that misconduct?
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I can explain. The previous prosecutor told him that he would not be charged. This then precluded him from taking the 5th in a civil deposition over the same allegation. His testimony in that deposition was then later used against him in a criminal prosecution when a different DA decided to press charges after all.

In effect, he was tricked into waiving his 5th amendment rights in the civil case, and into incriminating himself.

Unfortunately the court was correct here. That prior DA is an idiot and now we have a serial rapist walking free.
 
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fskimospy

Elite Member
Mar 10, 2006
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woolfe9998 said:
I can explain. The previous prosecutor told him that he would not be charged. This then precluded him from taking the 5th in a civil deposition over the same allegation. His testimony in that deposition was then later used again him in a criminal prosecution when a different DA decided to press charges after all.

In effect, he was tricked into waiving his 5th amendment rights in the civil case, and into incriminating himself.

Unfortunately the court was correct here. That prior DA is an idiot and now we have a serial rapist walking free.
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I guess it's cases like this that really test someone's commitment to the rule of law and the Constitution because...jesus christ. This is bad.
 
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woolfe9998

woolfe9998

Lifer
Apr 8, 2013
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fskimospy said:
I guess it's cases like this that really test someone's commitment to the rule of law and the Constitution because...jesus christ. This is bad.
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Yeah, but we can't allow this kind of prosecutorial misconduct or we might be the next victims of it.

I guess we can take a little solace in the fact that he's probably too old to be raping anyone else. Cold comfort.
 
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A

Amol S.

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Mar 14, 2015
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woolfe9998 said:
Yeah, but we can't allow this kind of prosecutorial misconduct or we might be the next victims of it.

I guess we can take a little solace in the fact that he's probably too old to be raping anyone else. Cold comfort.
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He mght not be able to rape someone, but he still has hands and arms, and thus might still be able to molest someone.
 
F

fskimospy

Elite Member
Mar 10, 2006
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woolfe9998 said:
Yeah, but we can't allow this kind of prosecutorial misconduct or we might be the next victims of it.

I guess we can take a little solace in the fact that he's probably too old to be raping anyone else. Cold comfort.
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I 100% agree - it's better for him to go free than to allow the government to engage in this sort of misconduct.

That being said, this is a tough one to swallow. This guy drugged and raped people throughout his entire adult life and he's going to go free.
 
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woolfe9998

woolfe9998

Lifer
Apr 8, 2013
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Amol S. said:
He mght not be able to rape someone, but he still has hands and arms, and thus might still be able to molest someone.
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True. Though at this point I would assume there aren't that many women willing to risk proximity to him, certainly not any willing to take a drink from him...
 
G

Greenman

Lifer
Oct 15, 1999
22,453
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fskimospy said:
If that's the case then he should go free as that's egregious prosecutorial misconduct.

That being said, that means a monster is going to be free again and nobody should be happy about that.
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I was perfectly happy with him being jailed for the rest of his life, but at 83, and being partially blind, I don't see him being any kind of threat to society.
 
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fskimospy

Elite Member
Mar 10, 2006
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This is as good a time as any to remind people there's an episode of the Cosby Show where Bill Cosby makes a batch of his secret barbecue sauce that makes women both sedated and horny.
 
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Sunburn74

Sunburn74

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Oct 5, 2009
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s0me0nesmind1 said:
Did the guilty case only cover one rape? Are any others still within statute of limitations (7 yrs?)
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I think it's unlikely any are still within most states statutes.

Honestly I agree with the high court on this one. You can't get a guy to waive his 5th amendment right on a promise and then backstab him using his testimony against him. He did however serve time as at a very old age and his legacy forever destroyed. I dunno... At this point I feel like some justice has been served.
 
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fskimospy

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Greenman said:
I was perfectly happy with him being jailed for the rest of his life, but at 83, and being partially blind, I don't see him being any kind of threat to society.
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I agree that he's unlikely to be a threat to society in his current state, but considering the amount of time others spend in prison for far lesser offenses it's galling to me that he's going to get off so lightly.
 
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HomerJS

HomerJS

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Feb 6, 2002
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Damn. On the one hand he should spend way more time in jail. However he did have an agreement with a previous DA and that was the only way to get the truth from him.
 
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ondma

Diamond Member
Mar 18, 2018
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woolfe9998 said:
I can explain. The previous prosecutor told him that he would not be charged. This then precluded him from taking the 5th in a civil deposition over the same allegation. His testimony in that deposition was then later used again him in a criminal prosecution when a different DA decided to press charges after all.

In effect, he was tricked into waiving his 5th amendment rights in the civil case, and into incriminating himself.

Unfortunately the court was correct here. That prior DA is an idiot and now we have a serial rapist walking free.
Click to expand...
I understand the legal ramifications of this, and unfortunately they are correct. What I don't understand is that with so many women coming forward to testify, why they even needed Cosby's testimony.

It also is unfortunate, and an indictment of our legal system, that so many are still in prison whose rights were equally violated, many of whom *are* innocent, simply because they are not a celebrity with the money to hire the best legal representation.
 
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theeedude

theeedude

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Feb 5, 2006
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"No person ... shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself."
Regardless of what you think of Bill Cosby, and he appears to still be a rapist, this was the correct decision in terms of protecting 5th Amendment rights. If he was forced to testify without benefit of 5th Amendment right against self incrimination in a civil case based on prosecutor's decision not to file charges in an alleged crime, then that prosecutor's successor should not be allowed to use resulting testimony to prosecute the same crime. Otherwise you open a giant loophole for prosecutors to compel self-incriminating testimony to be used in criminal case by initially declaring such case closed, then having that declaration used to compel self-incriminating testimony in a civil trial, then changing mind and using compelled self- incriminating testimony to prosecute the criminal case.
 
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KMFJD

KMFJD

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Aug 11, 2005
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eelw

Lifer
Dec 4, 1999
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And the scummy lawyer saying great decision to reverse the original travesty of justice. Umm your client is not being declared innocent twit
 
Viper1j

Viper1j

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Jul 31, 2018
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fskimospy said:
I guess it's cases like this that really test someone's commitment to the rule of law and the Constitution because...jesus christ. This is bad.
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Even evil people have constitutional rights.

Ted Bundy, John Wayne Gacy, and Jeffrey Dahmer all had their rights vigorously defended.
 
Hans Gruber

Hans Gruber

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Dec 23, 2006
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fskimospy said:
This is as good a time as any to remind people there's an episode of the Cosby Show where Bill Cosby makes a batch of his secret barbecue sauce that makes women both sedated and horny.
Click to expand...
Bill is going to show you a thing or two.
 
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