NORRISTOWN, Pa. _ A jury of seven men and five women began deliberating Bill Cosby's fate in his sex assault retrial Wednesday.
"You're going to do justice in the case of Commonwealth v. William H. Cosby," Judge Steven T. O'Neill told the panel after instructing them on the charges against the entertainer.
O'Neill sent the jurors to a deliberation room just after 11 a.m. to determine whether Cosby is guilty of drugging and molesting Andrea Constand in 2004 at his Cheltenham home.
The jurors, selected from Montgomery County, have been sequestered since the start of the trial. They heard 12 days of arguments and testimony from more than two dozen witnesses � including Constand and five other women who claim that Cosby drugged and sexually assaulted them.
In closing arguments Tuesday, Cosby's lawyers attacked his accusers and portrayed Constand as a con artist who plotted to fabricate allegations against Cosby to make money. Prosecutors said that such attacks are a reason why victims often do not report sex crimes, and described Cosby as a predator who made a habit of using his fame to gain women's trust before drugging and molesting them.
Wednesday marked the second time in less than a year that Cosby's case has been placed in the hands of a jury; a panel from Allegheny County spent 52 hours deliberating last June before declaring it was deadlocked. After the case ended in mistrial, one juror said he was convinced of Cosby's guilt, and another said that he did not believe Constand's testimony.
O'Neill instructed jurors Wednesday that they must not consider the first trial or its outcome _ which Cosby's lawyers mentioned in their closing arguments.
"You may have heard questions or reference to a prior trial in this case," he said. "Any reference or mention is simply not evidence in this case, and you may not consider it as such in your deliberations."
Constand, who was in the courtroom for prosecutors' closing arguments Tuesday afternoon, tweeted a photo Wednesday morning of a statue of "Lady Justice" _ a woman holding a scale.
Cosby, 80, leaned back in his chair as O'Neill spent more than an hour reading instructions to the jury. He is charged with three counts of aggravated indecent assault.
"I'm not going to tell you how to conduct your deliberations," O'Neill told jurors before sending them to deliberate. "If you have reached a verdict, then you would knock on the door and let us know that you've reached a verdict."
