Tag Archives: comedian

Bill Cosby’s Legal Team Believes “Racial Bias” Is Against Him In Rape Trial Bill Cosby is about to have his day to face a jury of his peers and let his attorney’s tell it, race is going to play a significant role in whether or not the comedian spends his last days as a free man… Via NBCNews As embattled comedy legend Bill Cosby enters the legal fight of his life, his attorneys have begun to invoke the concept of “racial bias” playing a role in the case being made against him. The 79-year-old actor is scheduled to go on trial next summer for drugging and molesting Andrea Constand, then an employee of his alma mater Temple University, in his home in 2004. Cosby has denied any wrongdoing in the case — which he had previously settled in 2006 — and has maintained that their encounter was consensual. On Tuesday, following a hearing where prosecutors sought to make testimony of 13 other Cosby accusers admissible, his attorneys went on offense — calling out attorney Gloria Allred, who represents several of his alleged victims, for her role in the case. “The time has come to shine a spotlight on the trampling of Mr. Cosby’s civil rights,” Cosby’s lawyers wrote in a statement. “Her campaign against Mr. Cosby builds on racial bias and prejudice that can pollute the court of public opinion.” Allred retorts: “He complains about racial bias, but what about the African-American women whom I represent who accuse him of sexual assault or rape and who refuse to remain silent about what they say they have suffered?,” While Mr. Cosby and his legal team may smell the stench of bigotry surrounding the prosecutions narrative, it isn’t as if the former “favorite dad” of America doesn’t have black supporters. Eddie Griffin , Kanye West , Luenell and Keshia Knight-Pulliam several other celebs have spoken out publicly in support of the comedian. Then you have those like Monique Pressley , the former face of Cosby’s defense team, who recently quit her job working for Cosby for unspecified reasons. Former prosecutor and Cleveland-Marshell College of Law professor Lolita Buckner Inniss seems to think Pressley’s presence could have been extremely helpful to Cosby keeping some of that black support: “Her gender and her race matter, because Bill Cosby is being charged with sexual assault of several women. A large number of those women are white women. I think there’s a certain extent to which the idea of racial solidarity plays in here. The idea that if an intelligent, well-spoken black woman stands with Bill Cosby on this, then perhaps some of those people who accuse Bill Cosby are lying,” Lolita Buckner Inniss, a former prosecutor and professor at Cleveland-Marshall College of Law at Cleveland State University, told NPR earlier this year. Do you think the racial component of this case is a hinderance or help to Bill Cosby? Image via WENN Continue reading →