Appeals Court Overturns Harvey Weinstein's 2020 Rape Conviction Due to Court Error
Disgraced Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein’s 2020 rape conviction was overturned by a New York court on Thursday, setting the stage for a retrial.
The New York Court of Appeals ruled that the judge in the notable #MeToo case had prejudiced the jury against Weinstein with incorrect decisions, including allowing testimony from women about accusations not directly related to the charges brought against him, according to the New York Post.
The state’s highest court — in a 4-3 ruling — found that the Manhattan trial judge, James Burke, “erroneously” allowed testimony from three women whose allegations were not connected to the case.
“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 because that testimony served no material non-propensity purpose,” the court’s decision read.
The appellate decision further criticized the lower court for permitting the cross-examination of Weinstein, who had no prior criminal record, about these allegations and other misconduct claims.
It said these allegations cast him in an extremely negative light.
Judge Jenny Rivera described these judicial mistakes as “egregious” and declared that a new trial was necessary.
“We reaffirm that no person accused of illegality may be judged on proof of uncharged crimes that serve only to establish the accused’s propensity for criminal behavior,” Rivera, a Democrat, wrote in the court’s majority opinion.
“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,” she said.
In a dissenting opinion, Judge Madeline Singas criticized the majority for overturning the ruling and suggested they had altered the narrative to a basic “he-said/she-said” scenario.
She added her belief that the jury could consider Weinstein’s history of assaults.
“[B]y failing to recognize that the jury was entitled to consider defendant’s previous assaults, this Court has continued a disturbing trend of overturning juries’ guilty verdicts in cases involving sexual violence,” Singas wrote.
Meanwhile, Weinstein spokesman Juda Engelmayer told NBC News said he and his team were “thrilled with the court’s decision.”
“We obviously have a long road ahead of us in California,” Engelmayer added.
The overturning of the initial ruling could mean Weinstein’s accusers might testify once more.
“That is unfair to survivors,” actress Ashley Judd told The New York Times. “We still live in our truth. And we know what happened.”
Judd was the first actress to come forward with allegations against Weinstein.
The 72-year-old producer has been serving a 23-year sentence in a New York correctional facility after he was found guilty of a criminal sex act in 2006 involving forced oral sex on a TV and film production assistant and rape in the third degree in a 2013 incident involving an aspiring actress.
Meanwhile, in Los Angeles, Weinstein was tried and convicted of raping an Italian model and sentenced to 16 years in prison in 2023.
That sentence wasn’t scheduled to begin until the New York prison term was completed.
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