Bill Cosby has walked free from prison today after a judge in Pennsylvania overturned his sexual assault conviction – the first prosecution in the #MeToo movement.
Cosby, 83, has served more than two years of a three to 10-year sentence at a state prison near Philadelphia.
He had been found guilty of drugging and molesting ex-basketball player Andrea Constand in 2004.
Cosby is best known for starring in the 1980s TV series The Cosby Show and was once known as “America’s Dad”.
The former TV star was caged after a previous prosecutor offered a deal not to charge him in the case.
Cosby had relied on that decision when he later gave potentially incriminating testimony in a civil suit brought by victim, Andrea Constand.
He said that vacating the conviction and barring any further prosecution, “is the only remedy that comports with society’s reasonable expectations of its elected prosecutors and our criminal justice system.”
Cosby had vowed to serve all 10 years rather than acknowledge any remorse over the 2004 encounter at his Pennsylvania home with accuser Ms Constand, an employee of Temple University in Philadelphia.
Friends and family of Cosby had appealed for the former actor to be released from jail, saying he was elderly, frail and legally blind.
In May, Cosby was denied paroled after refusing to participate in sex offender programs during his nearly three years in state prison. He has long said he would resist the treatment programs and refuse to acknowledge wrongdoing.
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