In what is truly terrible news for basically everyone (apart from Harvey Weinstein), the disgraced Hollywood mogul’s 2020 rape conviction has been overturned.
This news comes via Variety, and I honestly do not understand how this happened! But, we’re going to have to get into it, aren’t we…
So, according to the report, the New York Court Of Appeals found in a 4-3 ruling that the judge in Harvey Weinstein’s trial, which was truly a landmark moment in the #MeToo movement, had shown, as they put it, “prejudice”.
Let’s unpack that and explain what they mean by this. They ruled that the judge had shown prejudice by allowing women to testify about allegations that were not part of the case.
So, all of this is to say that the court has now ordered a new trial, which is just utterly ridiculous.
Harvey Weinstein’s rape conviction overturned by the courts
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As it stands, Harvey Weinstein is still serving a 23-year sentence at the Mohawk Correctional Facility, which is a medium-security prison in Rome, N.Y.
He will have to stay behind bars because he was also convicted of rape in Los Angeles in 2022 and was sentenced to an additional 16 years in prison.
That said, there’s another twist in this sordid tale – Weinstein was also acquitted in the Los Angeles trial on charges involving a woman who testified in his New York case.
So, this is just a huge bummer for everyone involved, and I’m sure that lawyers are working round the clock right now to try and figure out what to do in order to make these convictions stick.
“We reaffirm that no person accused of illegality may be judged on proof of uncharged crimes that serve only to establish the accused’s propensity for criminal behaviour,” Judge Jenny Rivera wrote in the court’s majority opinion.
“It is an abuse of judicial discretion to permit untested allegations of nothing more than bad behaviour that destroys a defendant’s character but sheds no light on their credibility as related to the criminal charges lodged against them.”
Harvey Weinstein was convicted in the New York case of sexually assaulting Miriam Haley at his flat in 2006. She was a former production assistant on Project Runway.
Weinstein was also convicted of raping Jessica Mann at a hotel in 2013.
What happens now?
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Harvey Weinstein’s lawyers appealed the conviction on a number of grounds. A lower appellate court denied the appeal in 2022, but the state’s highest court agreed to hear the case.
“Today’s decision is a major step back in holding those accountable for acts of sexual violence,” said Douglas Wigdor, an attorney who represented two pre-trial witnesses in New York.
“Courts routinely admit evidence of other uncharged acts where they assist juries in understanding issues concerning the modus operandi or scheme of the defendant. The jury was instructed on the relevance of this testimony and overturning the verdict is tragic in that it will require the victims to endure yet another trial.”
Judge Madeline Singas wrote the following in the court’s dissenting opinion:
With today’s decision, this Court continues to thwart the steady gains survivors of sexual violence have fought for in our criminal justice system. Forgotten are the women who bear the psychological trauma of sexual violence and the scars of testifying again, and again. This erosion of precedent, born from a refusal to accept that crimes of sexual violence are far more nuanced and complex than other crimes, comes at the expense and safety of women.
What do you make of this news?
Are you as annoyed, shocked and upset by it as I am?
I’d love to hear your thoughts on this report.
