A Pennsylvania judge on Saturday declared Bill Cosby's sexual assault case end in a mistrial after the jury was deadlocked on all three counts. Still, it doesn't mean Cosby is free.
The district attorney is planning to retry the comic on charges that he drugged and sexually assaulted Andrea Constand more than a decade ago.
Despite a storied career spanning four decades -- from stand-up comedy to the small screen to blockbuster films -- the trial may have left Cosby's legacy of laughs irreparably harmed.
"His empire has been forever tarnished and tainted ... as is his legacy," ABC News Senior Legal Correspondent Sunny Hostin said. "Had this been a one accuser story, there’s no question that perhaps he would be able to resume a career."
Although he wasn't convicted in the Constand case, Cosby has also been accused by more than 50 other women of drugging or sexual misconduct. He hasn't been charged with any crimes in the other cases, and has maintained his innocence.
"I just don’t think he can then go back as 'America’s Dad' or go back to America as a moral authority," Hostin added.
William Henry Cosby Jr. in part became a modern-day moral authority of sorts when he gave his now famous respectability speech at a 2004 NAACP event commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Brown v. Board of Education decision, which desegregated public schools.
Months after Constand filed a civil lawsuit against him, Cosby was asked not to speak at Temple University's graduation, as he did in years prior. In the suit, she included depositions from 13 other women, claiming they were sexually assaulted by the Temple alumnus over the years.
"As a 21-year-old, no one really watched the news so you didn't know what was happening so I think everyone was just kind of sad about it," Boone explained. "But I don’t think anyone thought about the gravity of the situation at the time. As an adult, I will say I'm hurt."
Cosby's legacy will not only include what happened in court this week, but it'll also include what some may call his greatest achievement. Cosby created the American family fantasy: a happily married mother and father, high-powered professionals with healthy kids who only got in the sort of trouble you could laugh about it at the end of the episode.
Longtime entertainment journalist and ESPN correspondent Chris Connelly said that "history is going to have to decide on its own."
"Throughout history, there's always been a question of if we can regard ... the work separate from the personal behavior of the person who created it and it's an ongoing question," he continued. "What everyone would agree with right now is that it feels like a tragedy."
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