Civil Rights Activist Rev. Jesse Jackson is advocating for the release of defamed TV dad Bill Cosby, in an exclusive interview with The Philadelphia Tribune, the country’s oldest, continuously-published Black newspaper.
“He’s 84 and blind. Who’s he going to hurt,” Jackson told The Tribune. “He should be home and free and away from all of those germs.”
Cosby is serving a three-to-10-year prison sentence at SCI Phoenix in Collegeville, Pennsylvania, after being convicted in 2018 for the sexual assault and drugging of a woman at his Philadelphia home in 2004, as Blavity previously reported.
Jackson said he and Cosby have known each other since 1968 through various civil rights initiatives. The two are also members of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc.
Cosby’s legal team attempted to get him an early release at the top of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020, however, the request was denied. Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf later granted “temporary relief” for incarcerated people who would be especially vulnerable to the coronavirus, but since his order excluded sex offenders, Cosby, while at an advanced age, could not be released per the order.
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