The Pennsylvania Supreme Court found the evidence was clear that district attorney Castor assured Cosby that he would not be criminally prosecuted. As the court noted, that is why Cosby did not invoke his Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination when his depositions were taken. The court explained: “Cosby did not invoke the Fifth Amendment before he incriminated himself because he was operating under the reasonable belief that D.A.Castor’s decision not to prosecute him meant that the potential exposure to criminal punishment no longer exist[ed].”

In coming to this conclusion, the court relied on a basic and well-established principle of law. As the justices stated: “[W]hen a prosecutor makes an unconditional promise of non-prosecution, and when the defendant relies upon that guarantee to the detriment of his constitutional right not to testify, the principle of fundamental fairness that undergirds due process of law in our criminal justice system demands that the promise be enforced.”

Not a word in the court’s decision exonerates Cosby of his crimes. The court did not question his guilt in any way. But the constitution must be followed even when it means that guilty people go free.

It is easy in hindsight to question DA Castor’s decision in 2005 not to prosecute Cosby because of what he considered evidentiary difficulties in obtaining a conviction. Of course, had Castor not made that decision, Cosby would not have had to answer questions at his deposition, and perhaps without that testimony he would not have been convicted in his 2018 trial.

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Perhaps, because of the #MeToo movement and the revelations of sexual assaults by prominent figures, especially in the entertainment industry, a prosecutor would come to a very different assessment today. But the unique facts of the Cosby case do not in any way reduce the ability of police and prosecutors to seek justice and accountability when famous people are accused of rape.

In this case, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court had to determine only whether a promise had been made to Cosby that he would not be criminally prosecuted — a promise upon which he relied. Once the court found that there had been such a promise, it had no choice but to enforce the constitution and overturn the conviction.

There is a cost to having a constitution that protects the guilty as well as the innocent. But it is the only way that all of our rights can be secured from abuses by the government.

Los Angeles Times