“Guilty, guilty, guilty!” Gloria Allred and some of Cosby’s victims shouted in a slightly morbid (yet celebratory) chant. The disgraced comedian and actor Bill Cosby can now add another credential to his resume: convicted sexual assailant.
Before the verdict, many people familiar with the court’s treatment of sexual violence—including me—prepared for the worst. The media has been quick to try and decide what made this outcome different? Many have pointed to #MeToo as an explanation, but in the search for an answer we’re missing the obvious: he was convicted because he did it—and admitted to it before.
Criminal convictions of sexual assailants like Cosby remain very low. According to RAINN, out of every 1,000 rapes, only 11 cases are referred for prosecution and just seven of those end up with felony convictions; the rapist responsible is incarcerated only 6 out of 1,000 times. Our society is still extremely limited in ways to get justice for victims and for many the criminal legal system is the only refuse, but it is woefully ineffective.
Cosby beat the odds; most rapists won’t see a fraction of the consequences he will face through the courts. A juror laid out part of the reason why Cosby is facing incarceration for his behavior in a TV interview Monday morning, the Associated Press reports:
The jury that convicted Bill Cosby at his sexual assault retrial said that its decision was only influenced by what happened in court, and the youngest member of the panel said that the comedian's own words sealed his fate.
Harrison Snyder said in an interview aired Monday on ABC's "Good Morning America" that Cosby's deposition — in which he admitted giving women drugs to have sex with them — was the evidence that made him believe he was guilty.
"I think it was his deposition, really. Mr. Cosby admitted to giving these quaaludes to women, young women, in order to have sex with them," Snyder said of a deposition that was part of a civil case brought by accuser Andrea Constand.
Maya Angelou has infamously said, “When someone shows you who they are, believe them.” I think that is the case here. I’ve seen arguments defending Bill Cosby saying he never admitted to rape, which is a very bad faith argument. While Cosby never said the word “rape” (and why would he?”), what he divulged in the deposition can’t be interpreted as anything other as a euphemistic admission.
Someone doesn’t have to admit to committing rape to be a rapist. The discrepancy between Cosby admitting to getting quaaludes yet denying that he ever raped someone is very common. Many rapists won’t say they committed rape, but will admit that they had “nonconsensual sex.”
Has #MeToo been a powerful cultural force? Yes. Has the hashtag brought more attention to the issue of sexual violence? Sure. But what #MeToo didn’t change is the mountain of evidence that showed Cosby for who he really is.
The evidence against Cosby was strong; the reason why we even had a retrial is that one juror just refused to consider that Cosby did it. The verdict isn’t about a conspiracy to buy NBC or an attempt to tarnish a black man’s legacy. Cosby sealed his own fate when he decided to be a sexual predator. That is something we should never forget.