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Bill Cosby wants everyone to know that he has no intention to admit any guilt, expects to serve his full sentence and that his trial was unfair in the sexual assault he was convicted of in September 2018.
“I have eight years and nine months left,” the 82-year-old comedian said in a series of phone interviews with the National Newspaper Publishers Association’s Black Press USA from SCI-Phoenix maximum-security penitentiary near Philadelphia. Cosby has previously maintained his stance from prison, saying that his 2004 encounter with Andrea Constand was consensual and that he is a “political prisoner.”
READ MORE: Cosby defiant, unremorseful in prison; says he is ‘political prisoner’
In the NNPA interview, he revealed that he spends significant time dedicated to helping and encouraging a large population of African American inmates through a prison reform program called Mann Up. But when he comes out, he warns the public not to expect him to give up on asserting his innocence.
A show of remorse is a requirement before parole or a shorter sentence can be considered, and unless an appeal works, he will serve his entire 3-10 year sentence.
“When I come up for parole, they’re not going to hear me say that I have remorse. I was there. I don’t care what group of people come along and talk about this when they weren’t there. They don’t know.” He added, “It’s all a setup. That whole jury thing. They were imposters.”
“Look at the woman who blew the whistle,” he said, referring to a potential juror who claims they overheard a seated juror state before the trial that, “he’s guilty, we can all go home now.”
“Then she went in and came out smiling, it’s something attorneys will tell you is called a payoff,” Cosby said.
The comedian has been accused of sexual misconduct by dozens of women but acknowledges, “I am a privileged man in prison.” Instead of meditating on what landed him behind bars, he seemed to be more concerned with the state of Black America which he says is, “under siege.”
“This thing with the drugs and the different pockets of the neighborhoods where it’s going on. When you look at what drugs are doing…things that make these people drive around and shoot into crowds,” Cosby said.
“The insanity of what is the cause to the brain by all the drugs these people are dealing with. It’s exactly what I warned them about in 2004. They’ve thrown education out the window,” he concluded. “They’ve thrown respect for the family out the window, and they’re blaming each other for what’s going on. There is post-traumatic stress syndrome, and there are also bad manners.”
READ MORE: Janice Dickinson reaches ‘very large settlement’ in Cosby defamation case
Cosby made similar statements in his controversial 2004 “Pound Cake” speech and it appears that not even prison has changed his views on the state of his community, which he expects to eventually vindicate him.
“I know what they’ve done to my people. But my people are going to view me and say, ‘that boy looks good. That boy is strong.’ I have too many heroes that I’ve sat with. Too many heroes whom I listened to like John Henrik Clarke, Kenneth Clark, and Dorothy Height. Those people are very strong, and they saw the rejection of their people. This is political. I can see the whole thing.”
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