Bill Cosby Is Ineligible for Pennsylvania’s Temporary Prison Release Order
Written by SOURCE on April 17, 2020
Bill Cosby will not be one of the beneficiaries of the order issued by Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf for the temporary release inmates amid the COVID-19 pandemic, TheWrap reports.
Gov. Wolf’s order limits the temporary release to inmates considered to be “non-violent and who otherwise would be eligible for release within the next 9 months or who are considered at high risk for complications of coronavirus and are within 12 months of their release.”
Cosby was sentenced in September 2018 to three to 10 years in prison on three counts of aggravated indecent assault. The 82-year-old comedian is considered ineligible since he was convicted of “a crime of violence.”
“Mr. Cosby is not eligible under Gov. Wolf’s order since he was convicted of a violent offense (aggravated indecent assault) and was determined to be a Sexually Violent Predator,” a spokesperson for the D.A.’s office said.
Cosby’s publicist Andrew Wyatt released a statement Thursday acknowledging that while those two factors make him ineligible, other circumstances should be taken into account which would warrant a temporary release.
“What you heard is absolutely correct,” Wyatt said, per Deadline. “But, with the surge of the COVID-19 plague and its effects on the health of the elderly, people of color and the fact that Mr. Cosby doesn’t have the luxury of social distancing (due to his blindness) — makes him a candidate to be release and remanded to house arrest.”
Wyatt said that he will not file an appeal on behalf of Cosby until he sees how Gov. Wolf implements this order.
