Saw this sign on the front door of one of the Cosby jurors. #CosbyTrial pic.twitter.com/MWZ7UcEUvB
— Aaron Martin (@WPXIAaronMartin) June 21, 2017
Bill Cosby’s trial ended in a hung jury last week, with jurors unable to reach a unanimous verdict. Prosecutors have said the case will be retried, but as for these jurors, their job is done, and reporters are now free to ask questions about their experiences and deliberations. I imagine they must be getting hounded by the press, and it’s no surprise that some are choosing to hole up in their homes.
Others, though, are offering some insight into what happened in the jury room, and it’s as upsetting as you’d probably expect. The reports coming out are saying that the jury was stuck at a vote of 10 guilty to 2 not guilty, although at least one juror is saying that count was only reached briefly before some changed their minds, and that for the majority of the deliberations, the votes were stuck at 7-5.
The most infuriating thing to come out so far is one juror’s statement that “Whatever the man did he’s already paid a price and suffered.”
#BREAKING: Just interviewed Cosby juror about the case: “Whatever the man did he’s already paid a price and suffered.” #CosbyTrial
— Aaron Martin (@WPXIAaronMartin) June 22, 2017
That’s exactly what so many of us feared. That’s the risk with such a public trial of a long-famous and widely beloved man. The hope is to get an unbiased jury, but how could that have been anything but a pipe dream in this case? That same juror went on to say, “I think they created this whole thing, a case that was settled in ’05 and we had to bring it up again in ’17.”
That doesn’t sound to me like this juror had “reasonable doubt.” To me, that sounds like he believes Bill Cosby is guilty, but didn’t want to declare him guilty, because then Cosby would be punished, and this juror thinks he’s been through enough. It also sounds like he doesn’t understand the difference between a civil case (in 2005) and a criminal case (now).
It’s not just ultra-famous father figures who have their feelings considered with more care than their alleged sexual assault victims. This think of his suffering mentality is what saw Stanford rapist Brock Turner released from prison after months. We see it all the time in rape cases, and we don’t see countless rapes reported because, among other reasons, women know this is a risk.
A jury’s job in cases like these is not to determine if the accused has paid his due, and being accused of being a rapist is not an appropriate punishment for rape.
By the way, Cosby’s publicist just announced his upcoming plans: he’ll be going on tour, educating people about the dangers of being accused of sexual assault. Nope, not educating about sexual assault. No prevention or awareness issues here. Rather, he’ll be talking to famous men–”athletes” and “married men”–about what to do if they’re accused of assault. Especially since, as the publicist notes, “the statute of limitations for victims of sexual assault are being extended,” you have to know the laws. Then you, too, can hang a jury, or maybe even be acquitted of rape. What a public service. Good thing he “paid a price and suffered,” right?
(via Aaron Martin, Twitter, featured image: Shutterstock)
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