Immediately following news of her long-time co-star’s release from prison, “Cosby Show” actress Phylicia Rashad tweeted, “FINALLY!!!! A terrible wrong is being righted — a miscarriage of justice is corrected!”
As the Daily Wire reported Wednesday, a Pennsylvania court overturned Bill Cosby’s sex assault conviction, allowing the actor to go free after serving nearly three years of a 3-10 year sentence for drugging and sexually assaulting Temple University employee Andrea Constand at his Pennsylvania estate in 2004.
Approximately 60 other women have accused Cosby of harassment, rape, and sexual misconduct over the years. Cosby has always denied the allegations.
Rashad later deleted the tweet and tempered her initial support with a new post, saying, “I fully support survivors of sexual assault coming forward. My post was in no way intended to be insensitive to their truth. Personally, I know from friends and family that such abuse has lifelong residual effects. My heartfelt wish is for healing.” But she notably did not disavow her initial statement.
This put Howard University, which recently hired Rashad as Dean of Fine Arts, in an awkward position. The school quickly issued a statement distancing itself from Rashad’s views. “Survivors of sexual assault will always be our first priority,” the school said in an Instagram post. “While Dean Rashad has acknowledged in her follow-up tweet that victims must be heard and believed, her initial tweet lacked sensitivity towards survivors of sexual assault.” Howard also said personal positions of University leadership do not reflect its policies.
In a statement posted on Twitter, Constand expressed her disappointment with the Court’s decision, saying it may “discourage those who seek justice for sexual assault in the criminal justice system from reporting or participating in the prosecution of the assailant or may force a victim to choose between filing either a criminal or civil action.”
“On the one hand, the Court acknowledged that the former District Attorney’s decision not to prosecute Mr. Cosby was not a formal agreement and constituted at best a unilateral exercise of prosecutorial discretion not to prosecute at the time,” she went on. “The Court also acknowledged that it agreed with the lower court’s credibility determinations, but nevertheless precluded a future prosecution, which included additional evidence developed in the civil case.”
Cosby shared his own message to Twitter on news of his release: “I have never changed my stance nor my story,” he said. “I have always maintained my innocence. Thank you to all my fans, supporters and friends who stood by me through this ordeal. Special thanks to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court for upholding the rule of law.”
“The Cosby Show,” which was the most popular sitcom of the 80s, ran for eight seasons on NBC. Rashad played the role of Claire Huxtable, Cosby’s wife, during its entire run. The other members of the cast, including Lisa Bonet, Malcolm-Jamal Warner, and Tempestt Bledsoe, have not commented about his release.
The views expressed in this opinion piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.