Greene County Democrat

Tag: Bill Cosby

  • Newswire: Legendary actor, Sidney Poitier, 94, first African-American to win ‘Best Actor Oscar’ has died

    Sidney Poitier

    By Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire Senior National Correspondent

    Legendary actor Sidney Poitier, who broke barriers and stood for justice and Black lives during the most tumultuous times of the civil rights movement, has died.
    Poitier, whose iconic 71-year career, included starring roles in “A Raisin in the Sun,” “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner” and “Uptown Saturday Night,” was 94. His cause of death has yet to be confirmed.
    In an exclusive phone call with the Black Press of America, Bill Cosby said he will miss his long-time friend and co-star. “He was honored by AFI. And, along with many stars of the stage, screen, politics and higher education who came out to speak, I brought with me the paperback of his autobiography and I said of all groundbreaking movies that Sidney starred in this book is the real story of this man and his journey,” Cosby remarked. “I am honored to have been close enough to him and work and work on serious matters.
    According to PBS, Poitier moved to New York City at age 16 after living in the Bahamas for several years with his family. In the Big Apple, he found work as a janitor at the American Negro Theater in exchange for acting lessons. From there, he took up acting roles in plays for the next several years until his film debut in the racially charged, “No Way Out.”

    Race and social justice would become central themes in much of his work throughout the ‘50s and ‘60s.
    A Broadway play focused on the life of the Bahamian born star, who earned his first Academy Award nomination in 1959 for his work in “The Defiant Ones,” is in the works.
    As noted in the New York Post, the nomination was significant to America as he was the first African American to be nominated for Best Actor. That role also earned him a Golden Globe win and a BAFTA Award.
    Poitier broke even more barriers in 1963 with his hit film “Lilies of the Field.” The following year, Poitier became the first African American to ever win the Best Actor at the Academy Awards.
    His career continued to climb for several more years. In 1967 he starred in “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner,” an interracial romance comedy that ruffled feathers in America. Then came other memorable films, “They Call Me Mister Tibbs,” the sequel to the controversial blockbuster “In the Heat of the Night,” and “Uptown Saturday Night” opposite Cosby.
    He released several more works; “The Measure of a Man: A Spiritual Autobiography (2007)” “Life Beyond Measure: Letters to My Great-Granddaughter (2008).”
    “As I entered this world, I would leave behind the nurturing of my family and my home, but in another sense, I would take their protection with me,” he said in “Measure of a Man.” “The lessons I had learned, the feelings of groundedness and belonging that have been woven into my character there, would be my companions on the journey.”

     

  • Newswire : Cosby’s sentence highlights the nation’s aging prison population

     By Frederick H. Lowe

     Bill Cosby’s mug shot

    Special to the Trice Edney News Wire from the NorthStarNewsToday.com (TriceEdneyWire.com) – Bill Cosby’s sentence of 3 to 10 years after being convicted on three counts of sexual assault spotlights the growing number of elderly housed in the nation’s state and federal prisons. Cosby, who is 81 and legally blind, was escorted by police on Monday from the Norristown, Pennsylvania, courthouse to begin serving his prison sentence at SCI Phoenix, a new state prison near Philadelphia, where the staff will assess his physical and medical needs. “The day has come,” Judge Steven O’Neill told Cosby before sentencing him. “Your time has come.” Cosby was convicted of the 2004 drugging and sexual assault of Andrea Constand, a former Temple University women’s basketball coach, Cosby’s sentence spotlights the nation’s aging prison population. In 2013, there were 131, 500 prisoners aged 55 or older. The nation’s total state-prison population is approximately 1.57 million. Over the last 25 years, state corrections’ spending grew by 674% and the costs are mainly spent on incarcerating the elderly. Those costs are much higher than for younger inmates, according to several studies. “It costs $34, 135 per year to house an average prisoner but it costs $68, 270 per year to house a prisoner 50 and older. Elderly prisoners face several challenges including hearing loss, dementia, cardiac disease, high blood pressure, and mobility issues. Prisons also must be retrofit spaces to accommodate the elderly, including installing ramps, shower handles and hiring nurses to care for the elderly. “Prisons were never designed to be geriatric facilities,” reports Human Rights Watch. “Yet US corrections officials now operate old age homes behind bars.”

  • Newswire; Bill Cosby found guilty on all charges in sex assault trial, Remains free on $1 million bail

    By Stacy M. Brown (NNPA Newswire Contributor)

    Bill Cosby.jpg
    Bill Cosby

    NORRISTOWN, Pa.—Convicted comedian Bill Cosby will remain on house arrest until he’s sentenced this summer following his conviction on three counts of aggravated indecent sexual assault.
    Judge Steven T. O’Neill ordered Cosby to get written permission from adult probation officials, if he wants to leave his Philadelphia area home to visit his doctor or to meet with lawyers.
    Those are the only movements he’s allowed, and they must be within a five-county radius of Montgomery County. Cosby has been fitted with a tracking device, so that court officials can monitor him. “This was a man who had evaded this moment for far too long,” Montgomery County District Attorney Kevin Steele said after the verdict.

    Steele said that Cosby had “shown his true colors,” when the legendary actor called the prosecutor an “a—hole” after Steele argued that he should immediately be locked up following the verdict.
    O’Neill ruled that Cosby could remain free on the same $1 million bail he posted when he was arraigned in December of 2015.
    “We still believe that Mr. Cosby is innocent of these charges,” lead defense attorney Tom Mesereau said. “The fight isn’t over.”
    An emotional Andrew Wyatt, Cosby’s chief spokesman, said the trial was reminiscent of Emmett Till, the 14-year-old Mississippi African American whose lynching after he was accused of whistling at a White woman, ignited the Civil Rights Movement.
    “This became a public lynching,” Wyatt said. “What Gloria Allred was able to do, she took a salt and pepper shaker. She [shook] out a lot of salt and sprinkled in a little black pepper and the South came east.”
    Ebonee Benson, who joined Wyatt on morning television shows after the verdict, said the comparison to Emmett Till is real. “We can take a look at Emmett Till,” she said. “Since when are all women honest?” Several television analysts questioned the verdict.
    Lawyer and famed CNN legal analyst Joey Jackson, who before the verdict said the case should have been declared a mistrial, said after the decision that Cosby’s team has “many grounds for appeal.” He said he was stunned by the verdict as well as the swiftness in which the jury delivered it. “Certainly, the prosecution put up vigorous case … but I thought the defense did a significant job of discrediting Andrea Constand giving the jury an indication that there was a number of lies she told over a period of time,” Jackson said.
    Jackson continued: “The first trial took them 52 hours and they were hung. This time it took 15 hours and they convict, so here we go. I think the most significant grounds were the five accusers. In the first trial, there was one and when you have five, they just have such prejudicial value and I think it just overwhelmed the jury. That’s probably the biggest point in attempting to get Bill Cosby a new trial.”
    Jackson called the issue “significant” and one that might allow Cosby, whose facing 30 years in prison, to remain free through the appeal process.
    This article was originally published on BlackPressUSA.com.