25 April 2024 , 13:27
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Harvey Weinstein's infamous #MeToo rape conviction has been overturned in court.
The highest court in New York, US, found the judge at the landmark 2020 trial prejudiced the ex-movie mogul with improper rulings, including a decision to let women testify about allegations that weren't part of 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," the court's 4-3 decision said. "The remedy for these egregious errors is a new trial."
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New York's highest court has ordered a new trial (Getty Images)The court's majority adds, "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."
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Judge Madeline Singas wrote that the majority was "whitewashing the facts to conform to a he-said/she-said narrative," and said 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"The majority's determination perpetuates outdated notions of sexual violence and allows predators to escape accountability," Singas wrote. The court ordered a new trial.
His accusers could again be forced to relive their traumas on the witness stand. Weinstein, 72, has been serving a 23-year sentence in a New York prison following his conviction on charges of criminal sex act for forcibly performing oral sex on a TV and film production assistant in 2006 and rape in the third degree for an attack on an aspiring actress in 2013.
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His accusers could again be forced to relive their traumas (Mark Lennihan/AP/REX/Shutterstock)He will remain imprisoned because he was convicted in Los Angeles in 2022 of another rape and sentenced to 16 years in prison. Weinstein was acquitted in Los Angeles on charges involving one of the women who testified in New York.
Weinstein's lawyers argued Judge James Burke's rulings in favor of the prosecution turned the trial into "1-800-GET-HARVEY". The reversal of Weinstein's conviction is the second major #MeToo setback in the last two years, after the US Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal of a Pennsylvania court decision to throw out Bill Cosby's sexual assault conviction.
Weinstein's conviction stood for more than four years, heralded by activists and advocates as a milestone achievement, but dissected just as quickly by his lawyers and, later, the Court of Appeals when it heard arguments on the matter in February.
Weinstein is incarcerated in New York at the Mohawk Correctional Facility, about 100 miles (160 kilometers) northwest of Albany. He maintains his innocence. He contends any sexual activity was consensual.