Pennsylvania Supreme Court Troubled by Bill Cosby Trial Witnesses

https://variety.com/2020/tv/news/bill-cosby-pennsylvania-supreme-court-argument-1234843012/

Cosby is serving a three-to-10 year sentence for sexually assaulting Andrea Constand in 2004. In his appeal, his attorneys have argued that the judge should not have allowed the five other witnesses to tell jurors about their own accusations against the comedian.

The case involves a key element of #MeToo trials — the use of “prior bad acts” witnesses to support the testimony of the alleged victim. Such witnesses were also used in Harvey Weinstein’s trial. Witnesses can be called to demonstrate a common pattern or “signature” crime, but cannot be used to show a mere propensity to commit crimes or to impugn the defendant’s character.

“A defendant must be tried for what he did and not who he is,” argued Cosby’s lawyer, Jennifer Bonjean. Once the jurors heard the five women’s accounts, she argued, “He had no shot. The presumption of innocence just didn’t exist for him at that point.”