And it is all about ‘The Fifth’

 My words, my writing, my opinions have not altered, despite the great loss I am attempting to pilot my life through.

I will not write about that loss, but will do so once the Adjourned Inquest makes its ruling sometime in the next few months. Suffice to state that, hopefully, there will be legal proceedings; but beyond that, I shall not go.

So I hope to continue to berate, to chide, to expose and even, sometimes; to congratulate.

It is regarding that last verb which I write today. It seems to be most strange to be congratulating an admitted rapist, a man who drugged a woman so he could commit that rape, on his freedom. Bill Cosby is free today because the State broke its word. He was given Immunity from Prosecution  so he would honestly testify in a civil Suit brought by the victim. Because he was under oath, because he could not stay silent, because he could not ‘Plead the Fifth’, Cosby admitted his guilt, admitted his crimes; and the victim was awarded damages. 

But then, a different prosecutor brought Cosby up on civil charges, using the evidence Cosby had provided in that prior trial as part of the prosecution’s evidence. Cosby was convicted, and given ten years. The Mob roared approval: but, as usual, the Mob was wrong. 

That second prosecutor was wrong, as was the State’s charge against Cosby. Because the State had removed Cosby’s Fifth Amendment rights, and forced him to testify under pain of perjury, it simply could not use that evidence against him.

America’s Constitution and Legal Systems are more than wobbly, but it says something grand about America when the Law says, ‘You can’t do that here, because, grotesque as it seems; the rapist Bill Cosby is today a free man because of his Fifth Amendment Rights’.