With Pennsylvania Supreme Court overturning Bill Cosby’s sex assault conviction Wednesday (June 30), the 83-year-old actor walks a free man. But supporters of Britney Spears are still furious after hearing her testimony last week when she described her “abusive” court conservatorship.
Cosby served more than two years of his three- to 10-year sentence in a state prison after being convicted in 2018 of drugging and sexually assaulting Andrea Constand — a former basketball player and Temple University employee — at his suburban home in 2004. He was released yesterday after the court found that an agreement with a previous prosecutor prevented him from being charged in the case.
As for Spears, she’s remained in a conservatorship that has overseen and controlled her personal and professional affairs for the last 13 years after the singer suffered a public breakdown in 2008. In a court hearing on June 23, the 39-year-old icon likened her situation to being sex trafficked, stating how she was forced to perform and wasn’t allowed to get married, have more children or remove her IUD.
“I am not here to be anyone’s slave,” Spears said during the remote hearing.
Many have taken to social media to criticize the American justice system that gave Cosby his freedom back after he has been accused of drugging and sexually assaulting multiple women (regardless of Constand being the only one to have a criminal case), yet allows Spears to remain in a conservatorship that has removed much of her autonomy, especially in regards to her own body.
“When Bill Cosby is freer than Britney Spears you know the patriarchy has finally won,” one person tweeted.
Read how they’re comparing the two cases below.
