have ever received in this country. and that s a good thing. the court doors have been reopened. the reporters and those who were attending this sentencing hearing are now walking out of the courtroom. we will wait to see if this means that the judge has made a decision about where bill cosby goes next. while i have you, wendy, i want to broaden this conversation a bit. we have a playbook, if you will, for how to deal with sexual assault allegations in criminal courts and in civil courts. there is a process that takes place. we don t have this sort of playbook in congress for hearings. what would be a good way to deal with this if congress were to take up having some sort of some preset guidelines for how they deal with somebody who is accusing a supreme court nominee, a lawmaker, somebody of
today. what is your reaction to the sentence today? i m vindicated. how about you? vindicated. janice dickinson, one of the women who say cosby attacked her, said she feels vindicated with today s decision by the judge to sentence bill cosby to three to ten years behind bars. again, if you re just tuning in, bill cosby has been sentenced three to ten years behind bars in county jail. we are still waits to see cosby leave that courtroom. we re also waiting to see if the judge decides to remand him immediately into custody, send him to jail immediately, or if he will allow him to go home while the defense appeals. joining me by phone is former prosecutor wendy murphy. she s also a sexual assault advocate and an adjunct professor of sexual violence at new england law in boston. wendy, we ve been talking about victims and the hesitation they
have in coming forward. again, this is these two things are not the same, the brett kavanaugh hearing is not the bill cosby trial. the allegations are not the same. but the victims are saying the same sorts of things. andrea constand talking about why she didn t come forward sounds a lot like why dr. ford says she didn t come forward until all these many years later. yeah, what a really important point. look, victims don t care if thor. r if the perpetrator is black or white or republican or democrat. the suffering women go through is the same. it s important to emphasize that so we can really appreciate this is not bad sex. when women talk about how painful it is to talk about this and how traumatizing it is, what they re saying is this was an incredibly violent intrusion into their personal autonomy and bodily integrity. the supreme court of the united states has called rape and
how she had to interact with cosby because she had to keep her job essentially and the trauma that caused her and how she felt that she didn t come forward initially because she wouldn t be believed. she felt, how can you take on someone like bill cosby. and of course, to complicate matters earlier, there was a decision by another county prosecutor that there wasn t enough evidence to bring the case forward. then years later, it was looked at again with some new evidence, which is a fairly complicated issue. so now andrea constand is asked again, will you come forward, relive all this, carry this for us. and she has. throughout this entire process, throughout the trial, both trials, she s been very dignified, very reserved, but very resolute this was going to be that she was going to get justice. when she had a chance to read a lengthy impact statement you ve been reading it, katy. it s a very emotional, personal document. she said simply to the judge,
believe will bring him out to the camera you re seeing on the left side of the screen. ron is back with us as well. ron, court is back in session at 2:40, we re told. what is going to happen next? reporter: the judge is researching his options in this particular setting, whether he can order cosby directly to prison or whether there s a possibility of him getting bail and perhaps a sentencing date or a date to show up at a prison some time in the next couple weeks or so. the judge is trying to research what his options are, which echoes what we were saying earlier, how this judge is being very meticulous and very, very careful because he knows this is going to be everything he s done is going to be appealed. the cosby team throughout this process has been very, very aggressive and signaling where they re going to point out weaknesses and what they think was the judge s rulings on matters pertaining to witnesses, on matters pertaining to all