Harvey Weinstein’s Rape Conviction Overturned by the NY Appeals Cour
Harvey Weinstein’s 2020 conviction on federal sex crimes was overturned by a five-judge panel in New York’s highest court on Thursday, April 26.
In a 4-to-3 decision, the New York Court of Appeals ruled that the judge who oversaw the disgraced Hollywood producer’s landmark 2020 conviction prejudiced Weinstein with “egregious” improper rulings. The judge added that the Molineux witnesses should not have been allowed to testify since they had nothing to do with the charges against him.
Judge Jenny Reviera said it helped “diminish defendant’s character before the jury.” Weinstein was also discouraged from taking the stand as Justice Burke said he would let the prosecution question him about uncharged conduct, which “served no purpose other than to display for the jury defendant’s loathsome character.”
“The remedy for these egregious errors is a new trial,” she wrote. However, a new round of litigation will force his sexual assault victims to relive their traumas on the stand once again.
The three dissenting judges accused the ruling majority of ignoring evidence, which reportedly revealed Weinstein’s pattern of coercion and manipulation.
Among them, Judge Madeline Singas also said that the court was “whitewashing the facts to conform to a he-said/she-said narrative” and continuing “a disturbing trend of overturning juries’ guilty verdicts in cases involving sexual violence.”
“The majority’s determination perpetuates outdated notions of sexual violence and allows predators to escape accountability,” wrote Singas.
People are dismayed by the decision, especially survivors of the #MeToo movement.
Ashley Judd, the first actress to publicly come forward against Harvey Weinstein, called the news “unfair to survivors.” “We still live in our truth. And we know what happened,” she said.
Lindsay Goldbrum, who represented 6 of his victims, called the ruling a move “backward for the rule of law.” She declared, “When a defendant is accused of being a sexual predator, especially one as powerful as Weinstein, the testimony of Molineux witnesses is crucial to disproving the defense that sexual encounters were consensual.” She added that there was “nothing to gain personally from participating in the trial.”
But will this new ruling stick?
A spokesperson for Alvin Bragg, the Manhattan district attorney said in a written statement, “We will do everything in our power to retry this case, and remain steadfast in our commitment to survivors of sexual assault.”
The development comes four years after Weinstein was convicted and sentenced to 23 years in prison for forcibly performing oral sex on a TV and film production assistant in 2006 and rape in the third degree of an aspiring actress in 2013.
Weinstein’s attorney, Arthur Aidala, told the New York Times that this decision is “not 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.”
Despite the reversal of the NY verdict, Weinstein will remain imprisoned due to his 16-year sentence for raping Evgeniya Chernyshova at a LA hotel. However, he could be transferred to the custody of prison authorities in California.
