Source: Mark Makela / Getty
While pundits have expressed they believe the influential #MeToo Movement played a factor in Bill Cosby’s recent guilty verdict, the jury stresses that was not the case. They claim that “The Cosby Show” star’s own words led to their unanimous decision to convict him.
According to the New York Times, in a joint statement released by the 12 jury members on Monday (April 30) they “were persuaded of his guilt by the facts,” not the activism started by Tarana Burke.
“Not once were race or the #MeToo movement ever discussed, nor did either factor into our decision, as implied in various media outlets,” they said about what happened during their 14 hours of deliberation.
They added that they strongly believed Andrea Constand’s testimony, the former Temple University employee who accused the iconic comedian of drugging and molesting her. They called her words, “credible and compelling.”
And while most of the jury remained anonymous, one juror, Harrison Snyder, went public and told ABC News, “Mr. Cosby admitted to giving these Quaaludes to women, young women, in order to have sex with them.”
He added, “Some have said that I made the right decision, and some people have said that they still think that he’s innocent.”
For those who do not stand by the verdict, Snyder has this message: “If you were there, you would say the same thing. You would say that he’s guilty.”
While many of us watched and loved “The Cosby Show,” the 22-year-old told ABC News that he never watched the show, so he had no loyalty to the 80-year-old when he made his decision.
“I really didn’t know a lot. I knew he was an actor,” Snyder said.
Snyder admitted that while he found inconsistencies with Constand’s testimony, he ended up believing Cosby’s guilt due to the actor’s own words of drugging women for sex.
“In the deposition, he stated that he gave these drugs to other women,” he said.
“I don’t think it really necessarily mattered that these other five women were here, because he said it himself, that he used these drugs on other women.”
As we previously reported, last week Cosby was found guilty in a Pennsylvania court to three counts of penetration with lack of consent, penetration while unconscious, and penetration after administering an intoxicant for the incident that happened in 2004.
As we know, more than 60 women have accused Cosby of the same or similar offenses, but Constand was the only victim to see legal justice.
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Cosby Jury Says Accuser’s Credibility, Not #MeToo Led to Guilty Verdict was originally published on hellobeautiful.com
