Camille Cosby spoke out for the first time since the guilty verdict was read against her husband, lashing out at both the media and prosecutors in a scathing statement about “mob justice.”
“The overall media, with their frenzied, relentless demonization of him and unquestioning acceptance of accusers’ allegations without any attendant proof, have superseded the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments, which guarantee due process and equal protection, and thereby eliminated the possibility of a fair trial and unbiased jury. Bill Cosby was labelled as guilty because the media and accusers said so,” the wife of the 80-year-old comedian said, according to Deadline Thursday.
Actor and comedian Bill Cosby arrives with his wife Camille for the sixth day of his sexual assault trial at the Montgomery County Courthouse in Norristown, Pennsylvania, U.S. June 12, 2017. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid
“Since when are all accusers truthful? History disproves that…for example, Emmett Till’s accuser immediately comes to mind. In 1955, she testified before a jury of white men in a Mississippi courtroom that a 14-year-old African American boy had sexually assaulted her, only to later admit several decades later in 2008 that her testimony was false,” she added. “A more recent example is the case of Darryl Hunt, an African American who in 1984 was wrongfully convicted for the rape and murder of a white woman, only to have DNA evidence establish in 1994 that he did not commit the crime. Nonetheless he was held in prison until 2004, serving almost twenty years behind bars, until the true rapist confessed to the crimes.”
“In the case of Bill Cosby, unproven accusations evolved into lynch mobs, who publicly and privately coerced cancellations of Bill Cosby’s scheduled performances; syndications of ‘The Cosby Show;’ rescissions of honorary degrees and a vindictive attempt to close an exhibition of our collection of African American art in the Smithsonian Museum of African Art,” she continued.
“I am publicly asking for a criminal investigation of that district attorney [Kevin Steele] and his cohorts. This is a homogeneous group of exploitive and corrupt people, whose primary purpose is to advance themselves professionally and economically at the expense of Mr. Cosby’s life,” Cosby wrote. “If they can do this to Mr. Cosby, they can do so to anyone. ”
The comments come after a jury of seven men and five women last week found Cosby guilty of drugging and sexually assaulting a former Temple University employee at his home in Philadelphia in 2004.
The guilty verdict of three counts of aggravated indecent assault each carries 10 years behind bars. Sentencing has yet to be scheduled. By law, Judge Steven O’Neill must carry out the sentence within 100 days of the conviction.