Earlier this week, we reported that Bill Cosby had been freed from prison after his sexual assault conviction was overturned due to a promise a prosecutor made in 2005 that he would not be charged for the crime. Afterwards, his “Cosby Show” wife Phylicia Rashad celebrated his release on Twitter, but she is now seemingly trying to backtrack.
“”FINALLY!!!! A terrible wrong is being righted- a miscarriage of justice is corrected!” Rashad wrote in a tweet that has since been deleted, according to Fox News.
Rashad had just been appointed as the dean of Howard University’s reestablished College of Fine Arts, and students were outraged that she would support Cosby. She sent a letter out to students and alumni on Friday in which she backtracked and apologized.
“My remarks were in no way directed towards survivors of sexual assault. I vehemently oppose sexual violence, find no excuse for such behavior, and I know that Howard University has a zero-tolerance policy toward interpersonal violence,” Rashad wrote.
Rashad also backtracked on Twitter, writing, “I fully support survivors of sexual assault coming forward. My post was in no way intended to be insensitive to their truth. Personally, I know from friends and family that such abuse has lifelong residual effects. My heartfelt wish is for healing.”
I fully support survivors of sexual assault coming forward. My post was in no way intended to be insensitive to their truth. Personally, I know from friends and family that such abuse has lifelong residual effects. My heartfelt wish is for healing.
— Phylicia Rashad (@PhyliciaRashad) June 30, 2021
Howard University also released a statement about the situation.
“Survivors of sexual assault will always be our first priority,” the school said in the statement. “While Dean Rashad has acknowledged in her follow-up tweet that victims must be heard and believed, her initial tweet lacked sensitivity towards survivors of sexual assault.”
“Personal positions of University leadership do not reflect Howard University’s policies,” the statement added. “We will continue to advocate for survivors fully and support their right to be heard. Howard will stand with survivors and challenge systems that would deny them justice. We have full confidence that our faculty and school leadership will live up to this sacred commitment.”
— Howard University (@HowardU) July 1, 2021
Rashad played Clair Huxtable alongside Cosby’s Dr. Cliff Huxtable on “The Cosby Show” from 1984 until 1992.
Cosby had served over two years of a three-to-ten year sentence for the sexual assault of Andrea Constand. An appeals court overturned the conviction this week because of a previous agreement with a prosecutor that Cosby would not be charged for this crime.
The court described Cosby’s arrest as “an affront to fundamental fairness, particularly when it results in a criminal prosecution that was forgone for more than a decade.” The court added 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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