Did Bill Cosby rape Barbara Bowman, and possibly others?

[Tommy_Carcetti]

123. The difference there is that there's some sort of evidentary record.

For example, based on the evidence and all the information I gathered, I do not think George Zimmerman was justified in shooting Trayvon Martin and therefore I believe he was guilty of at least manslaughter if not second degree murder. The fact that a jury ultimately came to an opposite conclusion does not affect my own analysis of what came out in that trial.

But the key word there is "trial". There was a trial with actual evidence presented under strict standards, and testimony provided under oath for the whole world to hear. I could deduce an opinion in the Zimmerman case because there was sufficient grounds for me to do so.

In the case of Cosby, all I've seen are written statements from some of the accusers in a lawsuit filed 10 years ago about allegations that occurred 15 years before that. I haven't seen any deposition transcripts where any of these accusers were questioned under oath and you could judge those individual's credibility. Nor was there any physical or documentary evidence for me to consider as well. Perhaps these people do have good credibility, and perhaps there may have been physical and documentary evidence that would have come out if there had been a trial in the case. But right now that's just a huge unknown.

All I'm saying is that I'm not willing to label an individual a rapist on written accusations alone. Your apparent outrage over my cautious approach is frankly bizarre.