Phylicia Rashad says a “terrible wrong is being righted” following Bill Cosby’s prison release
The comedian’s friend and former costar is rejoicing in the news of his prison release.
Moments after news spread that Bill Cosby would be released from prison, Phylicia Rashad, his costar from “The Cosby Show,” took to Twitter to rejoice in the news of her friend’s freedom.
“FINALLY!!!!” she tweeted. “A terrible wrong is being righted — a miscarriage of justice is corrected!”
As REVOLT previously reported, Cosby was accused of drugging and molesting Andrea Constand in 2004. He was charged for the incident in 2015 and convicted of three counts of aggravated indecent assault nearly three years later.
Despite the conviction and other sexual assault allegations made against her longtime collaborator, Rashad continued to back Cosby, who she believed was wrongfully targeted.
“I love him,” the actress told entertainment journalist Roger Friedman in 2015. “Forget these women. What you’re seeing is the destruction of a legacy. And I think it’s orchestrated. I don’t know why or who’s doing it, but it’s the legacy. And it’s a legacy that is so important to the culture.”
Years later, during a 2020 interview with Bustle, she doubled down on her support for the comedian, explaining that she is not quick to accept the accusations and negative stories being told about Cosby.
“I don’t know why anybody would feel that way,” she said at the time. “I just don’t accept what somebody says because they say it, and they say it in a loud voice. The internet has given a lot of anonymous people a very loud voice. And this, too, has happened before.” She then cited the allegations against writer Zora Neale Hurston, who was accused of sleeping with her neighbor’s 10-year-old son. The writer eventually proved her innocence and was cleared of all charges, but the damage was already done to her reputation as her books had been taken off bookshelves.
“I know what I know, and I just stay with what I know,” Rashad continued. “And it will happen in time that this will come around another way as it often does. And then people say, ‘Oh.’”
On Wednesday (June 30), after serving more than two years in his three-to-10-year sentence, the Pennsylvania State Supreme Court overturned Cosby’s sexual assault conviction, noting that an agreement with a previous prosecutor prevented him from being charged in the case. He was subsequently released from prison.
See Rashad’s tweet below.