New York Court Of Appeals Overturns Disgraced Hollywood Producer Harvey Weinstein’s 23-Year Conviction, Orders New Trial
Josh Berger
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Harvey Weinstein’s 23-year rape conviction has been overturned by a New York appeals court and ordered a new trial, as they find the former Hollywood producer’s trial judge allowed prosecutors to call additional accusers unrelated to the trial to testify against him.
Per Fox News, originally sentenced to 23 years in prison — following his February 2020 conviction of forcing oral sex on Mimi Haley in 2006 and third-degree rape of Jessica Man in 2013 — the state Court of Appeals overturned Weinstein’s sentence in a 4-3 decision.
According to the outlet, the appeals court came to this decision after they found the judge presiding Weinstein’s trial had allowed prosecutors to call four additional women, who were in no way involved in the Hollywood producer’s trial at the time, to testify.
In an statement issued to Fox News, Weinstein’s lawyer Donna Rotunno declared, “Justice was served. 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,” she concluded.
During a press conference on Thursday, Fox News reports, Ashley Judd, who was the first actress to publicly level accusations against the Hollywood producer, decried the appeal court’s decision to overturn Weinstein’s conviction.
“I went on the record telling [my] story because when survivors tell their stories, they are exercising a powerful form of leadership that sparks others to join in shared action that catalyzes change,” Judd declared, asserting, “This today is an act of institutional betrayal.”
The actress went on, “And our institutions betray survivors of male sexual violence. And we need to work within and without the systems to start having what is known as institutional courage.”
“I stand shoulder to shoulder with women who have bloody knees because male sexual violence may knock us down, but we get right back up and together we are in the struggle for freedom from male entitlement to our bodies,” Judd concluded her statement.
As the outlet points out, however, Weinstein’s New York conviction being overturned does not mean that he will be set free. The disgraced entertainment mogul was extradited to California in July of 2021 — following his 2020 sentencing in New York — as other four women raised allegations of sexual assault.
Sentenced to serve 16 tears in jail in February of 2023, Weinstein was originally found guilty in his Los Angeles rape case in December of 2022 on three counts of rape and sexual assault involving an unnamed woman, referred to as Jane Doe 1, and California Governor Gavin Newsom’s wife Jennifer Siebel Newsom.
At the time, the Los Angeles sentence added to the results of his New York conviction in March of 2020, when Supreme Court Judge James Burke sentenced Weinstein to a minimum of 23 years in prison — specifically given 16 years for attacking Mimi Haley and an additional 3 years for forcefully assaulting Jessica Mann.
Furthermore, Weinstein also faces indecent assault charges in London — with a woman alleging the former film producer assaulted her in August of 1996 — based on evidence collected by the Metropolitan Police.
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