Pennsylvania's highest court ordered former comedian Bill Cosby's release from prison on a technicality of the most dubious validity. The state Supreme Court ruled that Cosby was granted immunity in 2005 in exchange for his self-incriminating testimony in a civil case involving one of his many alleged sexual assault victims. There's one big problem: A judge must sign off on any such immunity agreement, and no such document exists proving that it was granted.

In other words, a convicted sexual assailant who probably ruined the lives of scores of young women now gets to walk free. It's as if justice itself was raped by this man, once nicknamed America's Dad but now worthy of sharing the title America's Sexual Predator and Serial Rapist. The ruling was split. At least a minority of judges correctly recognized the injustice that would be inflicted on Cosby's victims were he to be released on such a spurious technicality.

The decision hinged on an agreement by Bruce Castor, the original prosecutor in 2005, who allegedly made a no-prosecution promise to Cosby in exchange for his testimony in a civil case brought by the victim, Temple University sports administrator Andrea Constand. Like many of Cosby's accusers, she was drugged and raped by her assailant. Five other women testified in Cosby's 2018 trial to similar sexual assaults by him. A total of 19 women had offered to testify out of 60 who have accused Cosby of sexual misconduct.

Castor's successor, Kevin Steele, made the decision to order Cosby's arrest and prosecution, refusing to recognize any immunity agreement that wasn't in writing. To be valid, any such immunity promise should be documented in writing and approved by a judge. There is no such document or record of a judge having signed off on Cosby's immunity. Why Cosby's attorneys didn't demand such a document is their fault, not the prosecutor's or the victim's.

Without some kind of admission by the assailant, the vast majority of such cases boil down to he-said/she-said because physical evidence of such assaults is rarely obtainable. Women who have been drugged and assaulted either wake up in a daze and leave without fully recognizing what has happened, or they are too humiliated and ashamed (unjustifiably) to immediately go to police.

That's what makes Cosby's case so frustrating and infuriating for the thousands of women supporting the #MeToo movement who want the American public to see justice served. Instead, sexual predators everywhere now have a boosted sense of impunity because one of their own got away with it — again.

The statute of limitations has now run out, meaning Cosby, 83, probably won't face further criminal prosecution. But a potential mountain of civil suits await a man who deserves all the additional courtroom humiliation and hassles the civil justice system can mete out.

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