The disgraced Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein\u2019s 2020 conviction on sex crimes was overturned by a New York appeals court on Thursday, as prosecutors say they will retry the firestorm case.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In a 4-3 decision, the state of\u00a0New York\u00a0court of appeals ruled that the judge who oversaw Weinstein\u2019s 2020 conviction prejudiced the ex-movie mogul with \u201cegregious\u201d improper rulings and was mistaken in allowing other women whose accusations were not a part of the 2020 case to testify.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201c[Weinstein] was convicted by a jury for various sexual crimes against three named complainants and, on appeal, claims that he was judged, not on the conduct for which he was indicted, but on irrelevant, prejudicial, and untested allegations of prior bad acts,\u201d\u00a0read Thursday\u2019s decision.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe conclude that the trial court erroneously admitted testimony of uncharged, alleged prior sexual acts against persons other than the complainants of the underlying crimes \u2026 the remedy for these egregious errors is a new trial,\u201d the decision continued.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In a striking dissent, Judge Madeline Singas accused the ruling majority of \u201cwhitewashing the facts to conform to a he-said\/she-said narrative\u201d, adding that the appeals court was participating in a \u201cdisturbing trend of overturning juries\u2019 guilty verdicts in cases involving sexual violence\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe majority\u2019s determination perpetuates outdated notions of sexual violence and allows predators to escape accountability,\u201d Singas wrote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On whether prosecutors will retry Weinstein\u2019s case, a spokesperson for the Manhattan district attorney\u2019s office said in statement: \u201cWe will do everything in our power to retry this case, and remain steadfast in our commitment to survivors of sexual assault.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In a separate dissenting opinion, Judge Anthony Cannataro called the ruling a \u201cunfortunate step backwards\u201d and credited the original decision as correcting the false belief that sexual assault occurs with a \u201cstereotypical stranger in a dark alley who isolates his victim or waits for her to be alone before launching a violent assault\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Weinstein was sentenced to 23 years in prison in 2020 for two sex crimes: forcing oral sex on a production assistant in 2006 as well as rape in the third degree of an actor in 2013.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He will remain imprisoned because he was convicted in Los Angeles in 2022 of another rape and sentenced to 16 years in prison. Weinstein was acquitted in Los Angeles on charges involving one of the women who testified in New York.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Weinstein\u2019s attorneys\u00a0previously attempted\u00a0to get his rape conviction overturned in 2022 by a New York appellate court, arguing that the testimonies from women not apart of the criminal case prejudiced the judge. But the five-judge panel upheld the original decision.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The latest state court of appeals ruling reopens a painful chapter in America\u2019s reckoning with sexual misconduct by powerful figures \u2013 an era that began in 2017 with a flood of allegations against Weinstein. His accusers could again be forced to relive their traumas on the witness stand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Survivors of Weinstein shared their disappointment and outrage at the latest ruling. The actor Ashley Judd, one of the first people to publicly share allegations against Weinstein,\u00a0told the New York Times: \u201cThat\u2019s really hard for the survivors \u2026 We still live in our truth. And we know what happened.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Advocacy groups have also condemned the appeals\u2019 decision. In a statement, the Silence Breakers, a group of people who publicly called out Weinstein\u2019s sexual misconduct, called the ruling \u201cprofoundly unjust\u201d but added that it did not diminish the testimony of survivors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe man found guilty continues to serve time in a California prison. When survivors everywhere broke their silence in 2017, the world changed. We continue to stand strong and advocate for that change. We will continue to fight for justice for survivors everywhere,\u201d the group said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Weinstein\u2019s attorney Arthur Aidala applauded the decision as \u201cnot just a victory for Mr Weinstein, but for every criminal defendant in the state of New York, and we compliment the court of appeals for upholding the most basic principles that a criminal defendant should have in a trial\u201d, in remarks to the New York Times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The overturning of Weinstein\u2019s rape conviction is not the first time the decision of a milestone sexual abuse case has been reversed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In 2021, Pennsylvania\u2019s highest court threw out the sexual assault conviction of Bill Cosby on a legal technicality,\u00a0after discovering\u00a0an agreement with a previous prosecutor prevented the actor from being charged in the case.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The disgraced Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein\u2019s 2020 conviction on sex crimes was overturned by a New York appeals court on Thursday, as prosecutors say they will retry the firestorm case. In a 4-3 decision, the state of\u00a0New York\u00a0court of appeals ruled that the judge who oversaw Weinstein\u2019s 2020 conviction prejudiced the ex-movie mogul with \u201cegregious\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":42401,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_post_source_name":"","_post_source_url":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[80,12],"tags":[4791,11261,10620,10618,11264,7273,9306,2226,183,11941,10237,2848,7960,9784,9194,11282,9560,10507,968,11067,5787,11638,9997,11186,2490,12005,6580,10419,7123,11743,11237,10972,990,12238,8353,6574,8306,5762,7584,8109,6704,10238,6120,8840,6264,9804,11581,146,10885,5320,36,594],"class_list":["post-42400","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","category-world-news","tag-abuse","tag-accused","tag-acquitted","tag-actor","tag-allegations","tag-anthony","tag-appeal","tag-arthur","tag-assault","tag-bill","tag-bill-cosby","tag-california","tag-case","tag-charged","tag-charges","tag-convicted","tag-conviction","tag-court","tag-criminal-case","tag-escape","tag-flood","tag-forced","tag-guilty","tag-harvey-weinstein","tag-hollywood","tag-judge","tag-jury","tag-justice","tag-los-angeles","tag-majority","tag-manhattan","tag-movie","tag-new-york","tag-oral","tag-outrage","tag-pennsylvania","tag-prison","tag-rape","tag-sex","tag-sex-crimes","tag-sexual-abuse","tag-sexual-assault","tag-sexual-misconduct","tag-strong","tag-survivors","tag-testify","tag-trial","tag-truth","tag-victory","tag-women","tag-world","tag-who"],"blocksy_meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42400","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42400"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42400\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42402,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42400\/revisions\/42402"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42401"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42400"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42400"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42400"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}