Ten of 12 jurors thought Bill Cosby was GUILTY
Of the 12 jurors at Bill Cosby’s sexual assault trial, only two though the star was innocent but refused to listen to persuading arguments, it has been revealed.
In an interview with ABC, one of the jurors – who chose to remain anonymous – told how discussions at the highly publicized trial grew so tense, some in the group punched through walls and cried as they tried hopelessly to reach a verdict.
Cosby, 79, was charged with three counts of aggravated murder for an incident involving Andrea Constand in 2004.
His trial played out at the Montgomery County Courthouse in Norristown, Pennsylvania, for two weeks before a mistrial was declared last Friday.
Ten jurors were convinced he was guilty of digitally penetrating her without her consent, the first charge.
Ten of the 12 jurors in Bill Cosby’s sexual assault trial thought he was guilty of sexually assaulting Andrea Constand (right) at Temple University in 2004 but could not convince the other two to reach a verdict
Of the second count – that Constand was unconscious or unaware of what was happening to her after being given drugs by the comedian – 11 jurors thought he was innocent and one thought he was guilty.
The third count suggested that Cosby gave Constand the drugs without her knowledge by slipping them to her somehow. Again, ten jurors thought he was guilty of it but two, who ‘wouldn’t budge, would not move’, did not.
Eventually, after days of heated arguments in a small deliberation room where jurors were ‘walking in circles’, they returned a deadlocked verdict to the judge.
A mistrial was declared and Cosby, who was confident he would either be acquitted or see a mistrial, left the court on bail.
In their interview with ABC, the juror refused to say which way they voted and declined to name any of their peers.
They insisted that despite widespread accusations from other women who claimed to have been assaulted by Cosby in the public sphere, nothing except from the contents of the trial was discussed.
‘We never brought anything outside in. Never. Not once. If somebody would mention something, we would cut them off,’ they said.
At the start of deliberations, the jurors all voted to acquit Cosby on all three charges before they began discussing the case.
Somewhere along the line, many changed their votes but it was not enough to return convictions on any of the counts.
There was no lack of tension in the deliberation room. Sheriff’s deputies had to be posted outside and broke in several times, worried the group had begun fighting, they said, adding that one male juror punched a concrete wall because he was so irate.
‘I think he broke his pinky knuckle. If we kept going, there was definitely going to be a fight.
Cosby was confident he would either be acquitted or see a mistrial declared. He remains on $1million bail in Pennsylvania
‘They had five sheriff’s deputies at the door and they could hear us and they kept coming in because they thought we were already fighting,’ they said.
The twelve jurors were initially placed in a larger room but had to be moved when a judge was told that journalists could see in through a window.
The second room was so small that it drove them ‘crazy’.
‘People couldn’t even pace. They were just literally walking in circles where they were standing because they were losing their minds.
‘People would just start crying out of nowhere, we wouldn’t even be talking about [the case] — and people would just start crying,’ they said.
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