费城——美国最高法院周一悄悄宣布，不会重审比尔·科斯比的性侵案，让他重获自由，结束了一场持续20年的法律大戏，这场大戏改变了文化景观，摧毁了这位开创性的黑人演员的声誉，并在晚年将他送进监狱数年。

高等法院没有置评，拒绝审查宾夕法尼亚州的一项令人震惊的决定，该决定于6月将科斯比从监狱释放，原因是一名前检察官说他向科斯比的律师秘密承诺他永远不会被指控。

考斯比的发言人代表考斯比及其家人对这一声明表示“真诚感谢法官”，并表示他是该案件中地区检察官和法官“应受谴责的诱饵和开关”的受害者。

发言人安德鲁·怀亚特在一份声明中说:“这确实是科斯比先生的胜利，但它表明欺骗永远不会让你在生活中走得更远，”他再次将目标对准费城郊区的法院官员，就像他在两次刑事审判中一直做的那样。

根据怀亚特的说法，84岁的科斯比仍然健康健康尽管在法律上是盲人。怀亚特说，“许多人都在为他征集项目”，他正在考虑最后一次单口相声巡演。

宾夕法尼亚州蒙哥马利县的地区检察官凯文·斯蒂尔说，要求高等法院重新审理此案“是正确的事情”，即使这是一个很渺茫的机会。他感谢原告安德里亚·康斯坦德的勇气，并祝愿她一切顺利。

康斯坦德和她的律师在一份声明中称这一决定是“每个人的不幸结果，尤其是性侵犯幸存者。”他们指出，协议或承诺的存在“在(法院)人身保护令程序中受到激烈质疑，并被初审法官裁定为不存在。”

科斯比从未在该案中签署豁免协议。斯蒂尔的前任小布鲁斯·l·卡斯特从来没有把任何事情写下来，也没有告诉办公室里的任何人。他从未在公开场合提及此事，直到新的证据出现，十年后此案被重新审理。

他说他已经和当时已经去世的考斯比律师达成了协议。

斯蒂尔在2016年的法庭上表示，“一份允许一名富有的被告买断刑事案件的秘密协议是不对的，”他敦促将该案提交审判。

蒙哥马利县法官史蒂文·奥尼尔发现卡斯特在这一点上的证词不可信，于是将此案交付审判。然而，州最高法院后来裁定，无论假定的交易是否铁证如山，科斯比都认为这是因为他在康斯坦德后来提起的诉讼中提供了令人瞠目结舌的证词——可能会导致犯罪。

“在我们的刑事司法系统中，支撑正当法律程序的基本公平原则要求我们履行承诺，”大法官戴维·n·韦希特(David N. Wecht)去年写道，命令在入狱近三年后立即释放科斯比。

在2006年的证词中，看似随心所欲的考斯比对康斯坦德的律师提出的问题给出了长篇大论、意识流的回答。他详细描述了这些年来他与一系列年轻女性的性关系，其中一些还是十几岁。他回忆说，当他保持清醒时，给他们中的一些人，包括康斯坦德，酒精或药片。

“我没听到她说什么。我感觉不到她说什么。所以我继续，我进入了介于允许和拒绝之间的区域。我没有停下来，”考斯比在证词中说，描述了他给她三片缓解压力的药片后的一次性接触，她说这些药片让她昏了过去。

他于2015年12月30日在康斯坦德案中被捕，就在12年的诉讼时效到期前几天。在美联社前往联邦法院解封科斯比在康斯坦德诉讼中被长期埋藏的证词后，斯蒂尔重新审理了此案。

科斯比在提供了四天具有破坏性的证词后，向她支付了340万美元以了结此案。

他于2017年6月因刑事案件受审。陪审团无法做出裁决。不到一年后——在媒体报道媒体大亨哈维·韦恩斯坦对女性的性虐待激起了#MeToo运动之后——第二个陪审团判定科斯比对康斯坦德下药并进行性骚扰。

美联社通常不会识别声称自己是性侵犯受害者的人，除非他们同意。康斯坦德现在是性侵幸存者的倡导者，她已经这样做了。

许多妇女站出来说科斯比也对她们进行了性侵犯，但康斯坦德是唯一一个导致逮捕的人。他的保险公司违背科斯比的意愿，在2018年定罪后解决了马萨诸塞州的一项诉讼，涉及七名原告，金额未披露。至少还有另外两起针对这位演员的诉讼悬而未决。

卡斯特说，他与科斯比的律师达成了协议，后来在第二次弹劾审判中代表前总统唐纳德·特朗普，特朗普在1月6日煽动暴力暴徒袭击美国国会大厦的案件中被判无罪。

卡斯特说，他在2005年拒绝逮捕考斯比，部分原因是他认为双方“都不会受到恭维。”康斯坦德后来起诉卡斯特诽谤，并从他那里赢得了和解。卡斯特反诉康斯坦德，但被法官驳回。

Supreme Court won't review decision that freed Bill Cosby

PHILADELPHIA -- The U.S. Supreme Court quietly announced Monday that it would not review Bill Cosby's sexual assault case, leaving him a free man and ending a two-decade legal drama that shifted the cultural landscape, destroyed the groundbreaking Black actor’s reputation, and sent him to prison for several years late in life.

The high court, without comment, declined to review a stunning decision out of Pennsylvania that released Cosby from prison in June over the word of a former prosecutor who said he had made a secret promise to Cosby's lawyers that he would never be charged.

A Cosby spokesperson expressed “sincere gratitude to the justices” on behalf of Cosby and his family for the announcement and said he was the victim of “a reprehensible bait and switch” by the district attorney and judge in the case.

“This is truly a victory for Mr. Cosby, but it shows that cheating will never get you far in life," spokesperson Andrew Wyatt said in a statement, once again taking aim at the court officials in suburban Philadelphia, as he had throughout both criminal trials.

The 84-year-old Cosby, according to Wyatt, remains in goodhealthdespite being legally blind. “Many people are calling for projects for him,” and he is considering a final standup tour, Wyatt said.

District Attorney Kevin Steele in Pennsylvania's Montgomery County said that asking the high court to revive the case “was the right thing to do,” even if it was a long shot. He thanked accuser Andrea Constand for her courage and wished her well.

Constand and her lawyers, in a statement, called the decision an “unfortunate outcome for everyone, especially sexual assault survivors.” They noted that the existence of the agreement or promise was "vigorously disputed in the (court) habeus proceedings, and determined by the trial judge not to exist.”

Cosby never signed an immunity agreement in the case. And Steele's predecessor, Bruce L. Castor Jr., never put anything in writing or told anyone in his office about it. He never mentioned it in public until new evidence emerged and the case was reopened a decade later.

He said he had made the deal with a Cosby lawyer who was by then deceased.

“A secret agreement that permits a wealthy defendant to buy his way out of a criminal case isn’t right,” Steele argued in court in 2016 as he pressed to send the case to trial.

Montgomery County Judge Steven O'Neill found Castor’s testimony on the point not credible and sent the case to trial. However, the state Supreme Court later ruled that whether or not the supposed deal was ironclad, Cosby thought it was when he gave eye-popping — and potentially incriminating — testimony in a lawsuit later filed by Constand.

“The principle of fundamental fairness that undergirds due process of law in our criminal justice system demands that the promise be enforced,” Justice David N. Wecht wrote last year, ordering Cosby's immediate release after nearly three years in prison.

During the 2006 deposition, a seemingly free-wheeling Cosby gave long, stream-of-consciousness answers to questions from Constand’s lawyers. He detailed his sexual involvement with a string of young women, a few still in their teens, over the years. And he recalled giving several of them, including Constand, alcohol or pills while he remained sober.

“I don’t hear her say anything. And I don’t feel her say anything. And so I continue and I go into the area that is somewhere between permission and rejection. I am not stopped,” Cosby said in the deposition, describing a sexual encounter that came after he gave her three pills for stress, which she said knocked her out.

He was arrested in the Constand case on Dec. 30, 2015, just days before the 12-year statute of limitations expired. Steele had reopened the case after The Associated Press went to federal court to unseal Cosby’s long-buried testimony in Constand’s lawsuit.

Cosby, after giving four days of damaging testimony, had paid her $3.4 million to settle the case.

He went on trial in the criminal case in June 2017. The jury could not reach a verdict. Less than a year later — after media reports about media mogul Harvey Weinstein’s sexual abuse of women galvanized the #MeToo movement — a second jury convicted Cosby of drugging and molesting Constand.

The AP does not typically identify people who say they are victims of sexual assault unless they grant permission. Constand, now an advocate for sexual assault survivors, has done so.

Scores of women have come forward to say Cosby also sexually assaulted them, but Constand's is the only one that led to an arrest. His insurer, against Cosby’s wishes, settled a Massachusetts lawsuit involving seven accusers for an undisclosed amount after the 2018 conviction. At least two other lawsuits remain pending against the actor.

Castor, who said he made the deal with Cosby's lawyer, later represented former President Donald Trump at his second impeachment trial, at which Trump was acquitted of inciting the violent mob that stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6.

Castor said he declined to arrest Cosby in 2005 based in part on his belief that both parties “could be held in less than a flattering light.” Constand later sued Castor for defamation and won a settlement from him. Castor countersued Constand, but the judge threw it out.