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

The jury deliberated for over fifty hours.

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Bill Cosby mistrial
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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.

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
Amy Mackelden
Weekend Editor

Amy Mackelden is the weekend editor at Marie Claire, where she covers celebrity and royal family news. She was the weekend editor at Harper’s BAZAAR for three years, where she covered breaking celebrity and entertainment news, royal stories, fashion, beauty, and politics. Prior to that, she spent a year as the joint weekend editor for Marie Claire, ELLE, and Harper's BAZAAR, and two years as an entertainment writer at Bustle. Her additional bylines include Cosmopolitan, People, The Independent, HelloGiggles, Biography, Shondaland, Best Products, New Statesman, Heat, and The Guardian. Her work has been syndicated by publications including Town & Country, Good Housekeeping, Esquire, Delish, Oprah Daily, Country Living, and Women's Health. Her celebrity interviews include Jennifer Aniston, Jessica Chastain, the cast of Selling Sunset, Emma Thompson, Jessica Alba, and Penn Badgley. In 2015, she delivered an academic paper at Kimposium, the world's first Kardashian conference.