Harvey Weinstein’s rape conviction handed down in 2020 was overturned this Thursday by a New York appeals court. A new trial was ordered.
Harvey Weinstein was sentenced to 23 years in prison for rape and sexual assault on three women in 2020. Four years later, this Thursday, April 25, a New York appeals court decided to overturn this conviction and ordered the holding of a new trial. To justify its decision, the court of the State of New York considered that procedural errors were made during the trial
The New York Court of Appeal thus considers that bad decisions were made during the 2020 trial. The accused thus considered that he was judged “not for the facts for which he was prosecuted, but on previous accusations that are irrelevant, prejudicial and unproven.”
Specifically, the appeals court held, by a vote of 4 to 3, that the trial judge had “erroneously admitted testimony of alleged, uncharged prior sexual acts against persons other than the complainants of the crimes under underlying”. She also considered that the decisions taken during this trial According to information from the Associated Press, Harvey Weinstein’s lawyer hailed a “resounding victory for all the accused in the state of New York”.
Since this trial, Harvey Weinstein has been serving a 23-year prison sentence in New York. He was convicted of sexual battery and forcible non-consensual sex on a production assistant in 2006, as well as third-degree rape against an actress in 2013. The former producer has appealed of his sentencing in the fall of 2023.
Harvey Weinstein was also sentenced in 2023 to 16 years in prison in Los Angeles for another rape. The numerous accusations of rape and sexual assault to which he was subjected following an article published in the New York Times in 2017 had a grandiose impact on society, and contributed to the launch of the Me Too movement across the world.
