NEW YORK: New York’s highest court on Thursday overturned the 2020 sex crimes conviction of former Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein, in the case that helped to create the #MeToo movement.
In a 4-3 decision, the state Court of Appeals said the trial judge made a critical mistake by letting prosecutors introduce testimony from women who claimed that Weinstein assaulted them, even though they were not part of the charges he faced.The court also said the trial judge compounded the error by letting Weinstein be cross-examined in a way that portrayed him in a “highly prejudicial” light. “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,” Judge Jenny Rivera said. “The remedy for these egregious errors is a new trial,” she added.
Weinstein, 72, has been serving a 23-year prison sentence, after being convicted in Feb 2020 of sexually assaulting a former production assistant in 2006, and raping an aspiring actress in 2013. It will be up to Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg – already in the midst of a trial against former Prez Donald Trump – to decide how to proceed. “We will do everything to retry this case,” his spokesperson said.
It was not immediately clear how the decision would affect Weinstein, who has been serving his sentence in upstate New York. Even if he were not retried, he still faces a separate 16-year sentence in California after being convicted there last year for the 2013 rape of an actress in Los Angeles.
“Today’s decision is a major step back in holding those accountable for acts of sexual violence,” said a lawyer who represented eight of Weinstein’s accusers. “It will require victims to endure yet another trial”. Ex-comedian Bill Cosby saw his 2018 sexual assault conviction overturned three years later by Pennsylvania’s highest court. It said a 2005 agreement not to charge Cosby with assaulting a woman meant he should not have been charged a decade later. Reuters
In a 4-3 decision, the state Court of Appeals said the trial judge made a critical mistake by letting prosecutors introduce testimony from women who claimed that Weinstein assaulted them, even though they were not part of the charges he faced.The court also said the trial judge compounded the error by letting Weinstein be cross-examined in a way that portrayed him in a “highly prejudicial” light. “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,” Judge Jenny Rivera said. “The remedy for these egregious errors is a new trial,” she added.
Weinstein, 72, has been serving a 23-year prison sentence, after being convicted in Feb 2020 of sexually assaulting a former production assistant in 2006, and raping an aspiring actress in 2013. It will be up to Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg – already in the midst of a trial against former Prez Donald Trump – to decide how to proceed. “We will do everything to retry this case,” his spokesperson said.
It was not immediately clear how the decision would affect Weinstein, who has been serving his sentence in upstate New York. Even if he were not retried, he still faces a separate 16-year sentence in California after being convicted there last year for the 2013 rape of an actress in Los Angeles.
“Today’s decision is a major step back in holding those accountable for acts of sexual violence,” said a lawyer who represented eight of Weinstein’s accusers. “It will require victims to endure yet another trial”. Ex-comedian Bill Cosby saw his 2018 sexual assault conviction overturned three years later by Pennsylvania’s highest court. It said a 2005 agreement not to charge Cosby with assaulting a woman meant he should not have been charged a decade later. Reuters
