PHILADELPHIA (AP) Pennsylvanias highest court threw out Bill Cosbys sexual assault conviction and opened the way for his immediate release from prison Wednesday in a stunning reversal of fortune for the comedian once known as Americas Dad, ruling that the prosecutor who brought the case was bound by his predecessors agreement not to charge Cosby.

Cosby, 83, has served more than two years of a three- to 10-year sentence after being found guilty of drugging and violating Temple University sports administrator Andrea Constand at his suburban Philadelphia home in 2004. He was the first celebrity tried and convicted in the #MeToo era.

The former Cosby Show star was arrested in 2015, when a district attorney armed with newly unsealed evidence the comics damaging deposition testimony in a lawsuit brought by Constand brought charges against him days before the 12-year statute of limitations ran out.

But the Pennsylvania Supreme Court said that District Attorney Kevin Steele, who made the decision to arrest Cosby, was obligated to stand by his predecessors promise not to charge Cosby. There was no evidence that promise was ever put in writing.

Justice David Wecht, writing for a split court, said Cosby had relied on the former district attorneys decision not to charge him when the comedian gave his potentially incriminating testimony in the Constands civil case.

The court called Cosbys arrest an affront to fundamental fairness, particularly when it results in a criminal prosecution that was forgone for more than a decade.

The justices said that overturning the conviction, and barring any further prosecution, is the only remedy that comports with societys reasonable expectations of its elected prosecutors and our criminal justice system.

A Cosby spokesman did not immediately return a message seeking comment. Nor did a Steele representative, Constand or her lawyer.

FINALLY!!!! A terrible wrong is being righted a miscarriage of justice is corrected! the actors Cosby Show co-star Phylicia Rashad tweeted.