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Phylicia Rashad slammed for 'celebrating a rapist' in tweet after Bill Cosby's prison release

After facing a severe backlash on social media, Phylicia Rashad said her post was 'in no way intended to be insensitive' to the victims' 'truth'

Actress Phylicia Rashad, who played Bill Cosby’s wife on two television shows faced the Internet's wrath after she 'celebrate' his prison release. Cosby was released from prison after his conviction was overturned due to an "unfair trial" on Wednesday, June 30. The actor was convicted in 2018 for a number of sex offenses. He served more than two years of a three to 10-year sentence at a state prison near Philadelphia.

Celebrating Cosby's release, Rashad tweeted, "FINALLY!!!! A terrible wrong is being righted- a miscarriage of justice is corrected!" Soon her tweet went viral and she was slammed for supporting a convicted sex offender. Cosby was the first celebrity tried and convicted during the time of #MeToo campaign. As soon as the news of his release became public, people expressed anger and disappointment over the verdict, dissing it as 'an absolute blow to the #MeToo movement'.

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Rashad was recently named dean of Howard University’s Chadwick A Boseman College of Fine Arts. After her tweet, people raised concern on how she's going to handle cases of sexual assault in her role as a dean. Rashad turned off the comments on her tweet later but never deleted it, even after her second damage control tweet. Pennsylvania’s highest court overturned Cosby’s sex assault conviction after finding that an agreement with a previous prosecutor prevented him from being charged in the case.

'Are you kidding?'

People trolled Rashad for supporting a convicted sex offender and posted tweets like, "My god, @PhyliciaRashad you can't mean this. He is a rapist of 60 or more women and you celebrate him being released on a technicality? Howard University I hope you are listening, " and "Are you kidding me??? Another rich man getting off. Unbelievable! Aren't you so cool Phylicia! Standing by your perverted man. ICK! You are saying all these women lied! Just sickening." One user wrote, "Hey @PhyliciaRashad no where in its ruling did the court state/suggest/imply that Cosby was actually innocent. So the “wrong” is that a convicted rapist went free!" One user tweeted, "You're celebrating a rapist getting away with it because of a technicality." Expressing doubts regarding her position as dean, one tweeted: "A lot of sexual assaults happen on campus. How can Howard University ensure that Phylicia Rashad, as a dean, will actually protect their students, when she's celebrating a rapist?"

After facing a severe backlash on social media, Rashad issued a statement on Twitter and noted that her post was "in no way intended to be insensitive" to the victims' "truth". Her statement read, "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." 

People reacted to her tweet saying she cannot 'support victims of sexual abuse' while celebrating a 'convicted offender's release'. One tweet read, "Fully support survivors except for the 50 that were assaulted by this one man you idolize??? You realize he wasn’t exonerated or declared innocent? He was freed due to a technicality. That’s fucked up to send those tweets back to back." Another user wrote, "You cannot support victims of sexual abuse and support and a predator who admitted his crimes. He cannot be jailed due to technicalities, but he is a criminal, by his own account, and he is not willing to admit that what he did is wrong."