Bill Cosby's Sexual Assault Trial Declared a Mistrial, Following Jury Deadlock

The jury deliberated for over fifty hours.

Bill Cosby mistrial
(Image credit: Bastiaan Slabbers/NurPhoto)

The judge in the sexual assault case against Bill Cosby has declared a mistrial. Following over fifty hours of deliberations by the jury, which consisted of seven men and five women, the case was declared a mistrial when a verdict couldn't be agreed upon.

Cosby, who is 79, was accused of sexually assaulting and drugging the defendant, former Temple University employee Andrea Constand, in 2004. His defence argued that Constand had consented to sex with Cosby.

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Constand is not the only woman to come forward and claim that the comedian assaulted them. To date, over fifty women have made sexual assault allegations against Cosby, but the statute of limitations means that he has only been tried for Constand's.

Having reported the alleged crime soon after it took place, Constand took Cosby to civil court, when the Montgomery County district attorney decided not to charge him. As The Guardian reports, Cosby even "admitted in a deposition to using quaaludes in order to obtain sex from women," but despite his own admission, jurors were unable to reach a consensus.

Prosecutors in the case have four months to decide whether or not to retry Cosby.

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Amy Mackelden
Editor

Amy Mackelden is a freelance writer, editor, and disability activist. Her bylines include Harper's BAZAAR, Nicki Swift, Cosmopolitan, Marie Claire, ELLE, The Independent, Bustle, Healthline, and HelloGiggles. She co-edited The Emma Press Anthology of Illness, and previously spent all of her money on Kylie Cosmetics.