FILE – In this April 4, 2018, file photo, Bill Cosby arrives at the Montgomery County Courthouse in Norristown, Pa. Cosby’s lawyers are challenging the legality of the process under which a Pennsylvania board recommended he be classified as a sexually violent predator. They also claimed in a court filing that the state’s recently revised sex offender registry law is unconstitutional and should not be applied retroactively. (AP Photo/Chris Szagola, File)
July 31, 2018 - 2:37 PM
PHILADELPHIA - Pennsylvania's highest court will consider whether the state can lawfully designate certain sex offenders as sexually violent predators, as it's seeking to do in the case of Bill Cosby.
Cosby's attorneys also are challenging the constitutionality of the law.
But the state Supreme Court's decision Tuesday to review the statute was made in response to an appeal by the state in a different case, not Cosby's challenge. A lower court judge had found the process by which offenders are deemed predators unconstitutional.
A state panel last week recommended a judge find Cosby to be a sexually violent predator after the 81-year-old's April conviction on aggravated indecent assault charges.
That classification would require him to receive sex offender counselling by a state-approved provider for the rest of his life.
Cosby faces sentencing Sept. 24. He plans to appeal.
News from © The Associated Press, 2018