Once beloved comedian and TV personality Bill Cosby faces a looming retrial for his alleged sexual assaults as five more accusers step forward.
The string of accusers bodes well for the prosecution, which aims to establish evidence that Cosby was a serial predator who drugged and took advantage of a number of women over the course of five decades.
The retrial is set to begin in April this year after the previous trial ended in a hung jury.
So far over 60 women have come forth to accuse Cosby of sexual assault, eight of them alleging the actions took place within the statute of limitations. And though the prosecution attempted to persuade the judge to allow many of them to testify, Cosby’s team of lawyers put up a wall citing the amount of time it would take to investigate each accusation.
“Developing a defense to any of these outdated claims will require unusual amounts of investigative effort that cannot be completed by the present trial date,” Rolling Stone reports Cosby’s defense attorneys writing in a court report.
While the nation waits with bated breath for the trial to begin, it is important to note that sexual assault rates are down in recent time, despite the tenacity with which they are reported.
Every 98 seconds someone in America is sexually assaulted. Even so, rates have roughly halved in the last 20 years.
The progress made in decreasing the rate of sexual assault has been impressive, to be sure, yet it still happens. In October 2017, women took to posting the hashtag #MeToo across social media platforms, making it go viral.
The meaning behind those two small words is to show solidarity with other women who have been victims of unwelcome sexual advances. The movement also aimed to show society that although we have come a long way in giving women equal treatment, there is still a long way to go.
In light of this movement and the overall climate surrounding sexual assault in the media, the trial of Bill Cosby will most certainly be one filled with emotions.