To the world’s horror, Bill Cosby’s sexual assault trial ended in a mistrial, thanks to a deadlocked jury.
Like, surely even Cosby’s lingering supporters were hoping for an acquittal, as if that would exonerate him by association from his 57 other accusers.
The woman whose police report forced him into a courtroom, Andrea Constand, is finally speaking out.
“Thank you for the outpouring of love & kindness & support,” she shared over Twitter.
Honestly, she was a lot more graceful and diplomatic than we would have been in her shoes.
We’d have been directing our ire at Cosby, at society, and whichever juror or, worse, jurors prevented that jury from reaching a verdict.
Instead, she just expressed how much people’s support means to her.
“I am eternally grateful for the messages I have received in recent days.”
Andrea Constand is handling this with so much grace.
Honestly, we can’t imagine the strength of character required to go public about a celebrity with Cosby’s (now former) reputation.
If we were in her shoes and she put herself through reliving this nightmare for a trial only to have at least one juror unconvinced, we’d be posting a six-hour rant on YouTube that would only end when we’d had too much to drink to carry on.
What else can you do in the face of massive injustice?
The middle ground response would just be to say nothing and binge Law & Order instead, but so-called experts claim that “that isn’t therapy” and “isn’t a healthy coping mechanism.”
But maybe one of the things helping Andrea Constand keep it together is the knowledge that the prosecutors intend to retry Cosby.
Most of Cosby’s alleged victims — the ones we know about, anyway — won’t ever get to see their day in court.
This is because of the statute of limitations.
We can’t explain to you why any place would have a statute of limitations on sexual assault.
Except for the obvious — when men have been the ones writing laws for centuries.
In some parts of the US, that limit is as little as 5 years. It’s absurd.
So there’s a lot riding on the trial over Andrea Constand’s assault.
The retrial gives a lot of people hope — likely Andrea Constand included.
Then again, Cosby still has supporters like Keshia Knight Pulliam who insist that the man they know would never do this.
Constand has probably had her doubts about the trial’s success all along.
You don’t want to get your hopes up, right?
And there’s always a chance that Cosby could go through a dozen trials and always have one juror who’s an absolute holdout against conviction.
Celebrity status is a powerful thing.
And so is rape culture.
