UPDATE: DA will retry Bill Cosby case
NORRISTOWN - After more than 50 hours of deliberations over five days, the jury in the Bill Cosby case was unable to reach a unanimous verdict on any of the three charges the entertainer was facing.
With a deadlocked jury, Judge Steven T. O'Neill declared a mistrial today.
Prosecutors told The Associated Press that they would retry Cosby.
Cosby's trial started June 5 in Montgomery County Court. He was facing three counts of aggravated indecent assault on accusations that he drugged and sexually assaulted former Temple University employee Andrea Constand at his suburban Philadelphia home in 2004.
The jury began their deliberations Monday night and, through the process, came back into the courtroom to ask numerous questions, mainly wanting to review the statements made to police and on the stand by Constand and Cosby.
They came back to the courtroom just after 11 a.m. Thursday for the first time, with the foreman giving the judge a note saying, "We cannot come to a unanimous consensus on any of the counts."
But the judge sent them back for more deliberations over the defense's request for a mistrial.
They repeated the they are deadlocked this morning.
With no verdict, prosecutors have four months to decide whether to retry the case or abandon it. If they decide to continue prosecuting, a new jury will be selected, and the trial will be held again at a future date.
At trial, Constand testified that Cosby gave her three pills, which she said incapacitated her. She said while she was frozen and unable to say "no," he sexually assaulted her.
Cosby told police, and said in a deposition in a 2005 lawsuit, that he gave her Benadryl and that the encounter was consensual.
Washuchan on June 17th, 2017 at 15:35 UTC »
Finding an impartial jury that has not been swayed by the media circus of this trial for the next trial is going to be difficult.
pfeifits on June 17th, 2017 at 14:50 UTC »
For those that don't know, a hung jury means that some of the jurors would have voted to convict (return a guilty verdict) and some would have voted to acquit (return a not guilty verdict). Normally the decision of whether to retry a case is based on whether the majority of the jurors would have convicted, but obviously there can be other motives.
GuacamoleFanatic on June 17th, 2017 at 14:33 UTC »
District Attorney Kevin Steele says he WILL retry the BillCosby case.
With no verdict, prosecutors have four months to decide whether to retry the case or abandon it. If they decide to continue prosecuting, a new jury will be selected, and the trial will be held again at a future date.
Statement of Camille Cosby