Bill Cosby’s TV wife Phylicia Rashad speaks out on overturned sexual assault conviction: ‘A terrible wrong is being righted’

Phylicia Rashad has shown her support for Bill Cosby after his sexual assault conviction was overturned today (Picture: Getty/EPA)

Bill Cosby’s TV wife Phylicia Rashad has expressed her support for her former co-star after his 2018 sexual assault conviction was overturned.

The actor, 83, had been incarcerated since 2018, having been sentenced to up to 10 years after being found guilty on three counts of aggravated indecent assault.

The Cosby Show star was released from prison today (June 30) after the Pennsylvania State Supreme Court found that an agreement with a previous prosecutor prevented him from being charged in the case.

Taking to Twitter after the news was revealed, Rashad wrote: ‘FINALLY!!!! A terrible wrong is being righted- a miscarriage of justice is corrected!’

The star, who famously played Clair Huxtable, attached a recent photograph of Cosby to her Tweet.

The comments on Rashad’s tweet were closed and only viewable to those who follow the actress.

Cosby, who was previously known as America’s Dad, was released from prison after Pennsylvania’s supreme court ruled that a non-prosecution deal his lawyers had struck with a previous district attorney in 2005 should have shielded him from charges.

‘Cosby’s convictions and judgment of sentence are vacated, and he is discharged,’ the justices wrote in their opinion on June 30.

The actress played Cosby’s TV wife Clair Hanks Huxtable in The Cosby Show (Picture: Frank Carroll/NBCU Photo Bank)

The court stated that district attorney Kevin Steele, who made the decision to arrest Cosby, was obligated to stand by his predecessor’s promise not to charge the actor after he gave potentially incriminating testimony in a civil suit brought by Andrea Constand.

Justice David Wecht said Cosby had relied on the former prosecutor’s promise and that overturning the conviction, and barring any further prosecution ‘is the only remedy that comports with society’s reasonable expectations of its elected prosecutors and our criminal justice system.’

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Rashad originally came to Cosby’s defense in a 2015 interview with Showbiz411.com, calling the allegations an orchestrated ‘destruction of a legacy’.

She followed up on her remarks in an interview with ABC News‘ Linsey Davis and stated: ‘What has happened is declaration in the media of guilt, without proof.’

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