Big setback for MeToo movement, NY court overturns Harvey Weinstein's conviction
Harvey Weinstein’s 2020 rape conviction was reportedly overturned by New York’s highest court on Thursday, April 25
Harvey Weinstein’s 2020 rape conviction was reportedly overturned by New York’s highest court on Thursday, April 25. “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 court’s 4-3 decision said, according to apnews. “The remedy for these egregious errors is a new trial.”
‘An abuse of judicial discretion to permit untested allegations’
The court’s majority said that “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, in a dissent, wrote that the majority was “whitewashing the facts to conform to a he-said/she-said narrative.” Singas added that the Court of Appeals was 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“The majority’s determination perpetuates outdated notions of sexual violence and allows predators to escape accountability,” Singas wrote.
What was Harvey Weinstein accused of?
The 72-year-old was convicted in 2020 of first-degree criminal sexual act and third-degree rape. He was subsequently sentenced to 23 years in prison. The charges were based on the testimony of Miriam Haley and Jessica Mann. During the trial, three other women testified as “prior bad acts” witnesses.
Weinstein will continue to be imprisoned because in 2022, he was convicted in Los Angeles for another rape. For that crime, he was sentenced to 16 years in prison. In Los Angeles, he was acquitted on charges involving a woman who testified in New York.
Weinstein is now being held at Mohawk Correctional Facility in Rome, New York, as per the state Department of Corrections and Community Supervision. He has maintained his innocence and claimed that the sexual activities were consensual.
