Harvey Weinstein’s 2020 Rape Conviction in New York Overturned
The post Harvey Weinstein’s 2020 Rape Conviction in New York Overturned appeared first on Consequence.
The New York Court of Appeals has overturned Harvey Weinstein’s 2020 rape conviction in a narrow 4-3 decision. As reported by The Associated Press, the court found that the trial judge made numerous improper rulings, including a decision to allow women to testify about allegations not relevant to the case, and concluded that a new trial is warranted.
“We conclude that the trial court erroneously admitted testimony of uncharged, alleged prior sexual acts against persons other than the complainants of the underlying crimes,” the decision read. “The remedy for these egregious errors is a new trial.”
The majority ruling added, “It is an abuse of judicial discretion to permit untested allegations of nothing more than bad behavior that destroys a defendant’s character but sheds no light on their credibility as related to the criminal charges lodged against them.”
Judge Madeline Singas pushed back in the dissenting opinion, writing that the majority was “whitewashing the facts to conform to a he-said/she-said narrative” and said the reversal was advancing a “disturbing trend of overturning juries’ guilty verdicts in cases involving sexual violence.”
Update: The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office confirmed it plans to retry the case against Weinstein. “We will do everything in our power to retry this case, and remain steadfast in our commitment to survivors of sexual assault,” the DA’s office said in a statement.
Though the Court of Appeals decision overturns Weinstein’s 23-year prison sentence for first degree sexual assault and third degree rape in New York, he will remain in prison on a 16-year sentence for a 2022 conviction in Los Angeles related to a different rape.
This reversal follows the US Supreme Court declining in 2022 to review an appeal of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s 2021 decision to throw out Bill Cosby’s sexual assault conviction.
Harvey Weinstein’s 2020 Rape Conviction in New York Overturned
Eddie Fu
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