I object to the deceptive political ads being run to “term limit” three Pennsylvania Supreme Court justices by voting “No” on their retention.
Ads say the justices set free an unnamed convicted sex offender. The case was against Bill Cosby, and was overturned for denial of due process. District Attorney Bruce Castor chose not to criminally prosecute Cosby and verbally promised that Cosby would not be prosecuted. This prevented Cosby from refusing to testify in a civil lawsuit brought by Cosby’s alleged victim, and Cosby in fact gave incriminating testimony that led to a $3.4 million settlement of the civil case.
A subsequent district attorney reneged on the promise not to prosecute Cosby and used his self-incriminating testimony to obtain a criminal conviction. The Pennsylvaniaa Supreme Court overturned the conviction based on denial of due process. The commonwealth, acting through the district attorney, binds a subsequent district attorney to the terms of the non-prosecution agreement.
This political ad deliberately avoided naming Cosby because there was enough media coverage that many people would remember the unfairness of forcing a person to incriminate himself and then using his own words to later convict him and send him to jail.
Please don’t be fooled. Vote “Yes” to retain these justices who upheld the law, even when it could subject them to public criticism.
R. Mark Gesalman
Unity