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Bill Cosby last year was in the midst of trials regarding the accusations of him drugging and assaulting women. The jurors in the trial previous had been unable to reach a decision, so as the retrial draws nearer this article examine all the things that have changed since last year, and how that could affect the upcoming trial. First of all between then and now there was the Harvey Weinstein ordeal, which sparked the #MeToo movement against the hollywood elite that take advantage of their position, experts in law stated that movements of that kind do affect a jury's perception of the case, and that this once will most likely affect the Cosby case now that it's up against this backdrop of a social movement regarding the exact nature of the trial. Now also in this retrial the judge is allowing all five women to testify, when it used to be just the one who could. This is to prove that it is a pattern for Cosby, which will heighten the chances of him getting convicted.
The idea of an outward social movement affecting the events of a trial is not uncommon, these movements tend to reach all aspects of American Culture in hopes to make real honest change, so it's perfectly logical that with this added factor of this social change in america that Cosby's chances of getting through this without jail time are significantly lower. This idea of a social change affecting convictions is present when examining the second red scare and mccarythism. The fear of communism led to the hunting and outing of those that were seen as "UNamerican" and really this widespread fear is what led to this becoming a valid reason for conviction. Obviously these are two different situations, the Me Too movement is a positive change, while the whole red scare was just chaos.
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