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Phylicia Rashad’s Tweet Celebrating The Release Of Bill Cosby Is Not Going Over Well

In a shocking legal twist, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court has overturned Bill Cosby’s sexual assault conviction. He will go free after serving less than three years of his ten-year prison sentence. Few people expected this to happen, ever, let alone after a judge denied parole to the disgraced TV star and comedian after he refused to participate in prison treatment programs. As it turns out, though, the court’s opinion (which followed a criminal court judge labeling him a “sexually violent predator”) is a procedural matter.

The legal process got all botched up due to a previous prosecutor (Bruce Castor, who gave a My Cousin Vinny-esque speech during Trump’s second impeachment trial) agreeing not to prosecute Cosby. A subsequent prosecutor ran with the case after several accusers came forward, years after Cosby’s $3.3 million settlement to Andrea Constand and his 2005 admission that he’d drugged and raped her and other women. And when the PA Supreme Court ruled that Cosby should go free, this was music to the ears of his former Cosby Show co-star, Phylicia Rashad.

“FINALLY!!!!” A terrible wrong is being righted,” The woman who played Claire Huxtable tweeted. “[A] miscarriage of justice is corrected!”

https://twitter.com/PhyliciaRashad/status/1410289746539130882

As one might expect, uh, this wasn’t the wisest thing in the world to tweet. Rashad’s got her Twitter replies (from the general public) turned off, but that hasn’t stopped anyone from quote-tweeting her while wondering how Rashad’s employer, Howard University (where she’ll be dean of the Chadwick A. Boseman College of Fine Arts), will view her vigorous celebration of her former TV husband.

https://twitter.com/alanzilberman/status/1410291521459478538
https://twitter.com/NotHustleAndFro/status/1410318445686706179

CNN’s Jake Tapper summed things up pretty well: “The actress who played Mrs. Huxtable weighs in.”

Yep, Rashad does appear to overlook what actually happened here, in that no justice was corrected, and Cosby certainly wasn’t acquitted. He’s only going free because of prosecutorial error, and people have noticed.

https://twitter.com/coreyreynoldsLA/status/1410309152547622913

Others urged Rashad to sit down and maybe, you know, delete that tweet.

Throughout his case, Cosby has steadfastly refused to express remorse or admit wrongdoing regarding his alleged actions. He even insisted that he’d prefer to serve his entire sentence than make such an admission. Details of his impending release should be forthcoming.

(Via PA Supreme Court)