The New York Court of Appeals has overturned the two 2020 sex crimes convictions against Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein and ruled he deserves a new trial. Judges on the appeals court voted 4 to 3 that Weinstein’s constitutional rights were violated during his 2020 trial. According to their ruling, prosecutors allowed women to testify who were not pertinent to the cases, and thus Weinstein was put on trial for behaviour unrelated to the charges. Miriam Haley and Jessica Mann are the alleged victims of the two sex acts in question, yet several other women were called to testify against him, with the reasoning these other women would help establish a pattern, TMZ reported. Weinstein was sentenced to 23 years in prison by New York City courts in March 2020 for a 2013 third-degree rape and a 2006 first-degree criminal sex act. He was tried at the time for five sex crimes, but was only convicted for two of them. The criminal sex act count holds a minimum penalty of five years in prison and a maximum of 25 years and the third-degree rape count comes with a maximum of four years in prison, per Fox News. Weinstein continues to maintain his innocence and has denied any non-consensual sexual interactions — they were "extramarital affairs," he said. The disgraced movie producer still faces convictions in Los Angeles, CA. In 2022 he was found guilty on three of seven sex charges, including rape and forced oral sex and sentenced to 16 years, per the Daily Mail.The 72-year-old, whose actions led to the #MeToo movement, is currently being held at Mohawk Correctional Facility in Rome, NY, according to the state Department of Corrections and Community Supervision. “Justice was served,” lead defence attorney Donna Rotunno said Thursday in response to the court’s decision. “I believe this decision is larger than Harvey Weinstein. Courts cannot operate on emotion and lack of due process. The world is off-balance, and when the justice system does not work, nothing does. This decision restores faith in the foundation of our system.”“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,” Judge Jenny Rivera wrote in the ruling.“The court compounded that error when it ruled that defendant, who had no criminal history, could be cross-examined about those allegations as well as numerous allegations of misconduct that portrayed defendant in a highly prejudicial light. The synergistic effect of these errors was not harmless.”There eight women who claim the producer sexually assaulted them will testify over the course of the next several weeks, said prosecutor Paul Thompson."Each of these women came forward independent of each other and none of them knew one another," Thompson told the jury.All eight of them testified against Weinstein at his second sexual assault trial, per CNN.Emily Tuttle, deputy director of communications and senior advisor for the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, said, “We will do everything in our power to retry this case.”“(We) remain steadfast in our commitment to survivors of sexual assault,” said Tuttle.The attorney who represented the eight women, Douglas H. Wigdor, slammed the appeals court decision. “Today’s decision is a major step back in holding those accountable for acts of sexual violence,” said Wigdor in a statement. “Courts routinely admit evidence of other uncharged acts where they assist juries in understanding issues concerning the intent, modus operandi or scheme of the defendant. The jury was instructed on the relevance of this testimony and overturning the verdict is tragic in that it will require the victims to endure yet another trial.”
The New York Court of Appeals has overturned the two 2020 sex crimes convictions against Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein and ruled he deserves a new trial. Judges on the appeals court voted 4 to 3 that Weinstein’s constitutional rights were violated during his 2020 trial. According to their ruling, prosecutors allowed women to testify who were not pertinent to the cases, and thus Weinstein was put on trial for behaviour unrelated to the charges. Miriam Haley and Jessica Mann are the alleged victims of the two sex acts in question, yet several other women were called to testify against him, with the reasoning these other women would help establish a pattern, TMZ reported. Weinstein was sentenced to 23 years in prison by New York City courts in March 2020 for a 2013 third-degree rape and a 2006 first-degree criminal sex act. He was tried at the time for five sex crimes, but was only convicted for two of them. The criminal sex act count holds a minimum penalty of five years in prison and a maximum of 25 years and the third-degree rape count comes with a maximum of four years in prison, per Fox News. Weinstein continues to maintain his innocence and has denied any non-consensual sexual interactions — they were "extramarital affairs," he said. The disgraced movie producer still faces convictions in Los Angeles, CA. In 2022 he was found guilty on three of seven sex charges, including rape and forced oral sex and sentenced to 16 years, per the Daily Mail.The 72-year-old, whose actions led to the #MeToo movement, is currently being held at Mohawk Correctional Facility in Rome, NY, according to the state Department of Corrections and Community Supervision. “Justice was served,” lead defence attorney Donna Rotunno said Thursday in response to the court’s decision. “I believe this decision is larger than Harvey Weinstein. Courts cannot operate on emotion and lack of due process. The world is off-balance, and when the justice system does not work, nothing does. This decision restores faith in the foundation of our system.”“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,” Judge Jenny Rivera wrote in the ruling.“The court compounded that error when it ruled that defendant, who had no criminal history, could be cross-examined about those allegations as well as numerous allegations of misconduct that portrayed defendant in a highly prejudicial light. The synergistic effect of these errors was not harmless.”There eight women who claim the producer sexually assaulted them will testify over the course of the next several weeks, said prosecutor Paul Thompson."Each of these women came forward independent of each other and none of them knew one another," Thompson told the jury.All eight of them testified against Weinstein at his second sexual assault trial, per CNN.Emily Tuttle, deputy director of communications and senior advisor for the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, said, “We will do everything in our power to retry this case.”“(We) remain steadfast in our commitment to survivors of sexual assault,” said Tuttle.The attorney who represented the eight women, Douglas H. Wigdor, slammed the appeals court decision. “Today’s decision is a major step back in holding those accountable for acts of sexual violence,” said Wigdor in a statement. “Courts routinely admit evidence of other uncharged acts where they assist juries in understanding issues concerning the intent, modus operandi or scheme of the defendant. The jury was instructed on the relevance of this testimony and overturning the verdict is tragic in that it will require the victims to endure yet another trial.”
