Harvey Weinstein 2020 Rape Conviction Overturned in New York

Tony Maglio
·3-min read

Disgraced Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein’s 2020 rape conviction has been overturned by New York’s top appeals court.

After an appeal process, the court found there were “egregious errors” committed in the original trial, according to the Associated Press, including the court’s allowance of testimony from three women speaking to “uncharged, alleged prior sexual acts” that were unrelated to the rape charge. The argument from Weinstein’s side is that the Miramax founder could not take the stand in his defense on the actual charges without also being cross-examined on the uncharged accusations.

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The New York Court of Appeals vote was a close one: Weinstein’s conviction was overturned 4-3.

“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 majority decision said. “The remedy for these egregious errors is a new trial.”

It is currently not known if Weinstein will face a new trial on the New York rape charge — he can be retried. Either way he is not a free man. Weinstein, now 72, was found guilty of committing a separate rape in Los Angeles and has been sentenced to 16 years in prison there. The New York conviction on charges of forcibly performing oral sex on a production assistant in 2006 and rape in the third degree of an aspiring actress in 2013 had carried with it a 23-year sentence. That, for now, has been abandoned.

“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,” the New York majority decision continued.

Of course, there is also the opinion of the three dissenting judges. Judge Madeline Singas believes her four prevailing fellow judges are “whitewashing the facts to conform to a he-said/she-said narrative,” she wrote in her opinion. She believes it to be a continuation of a “disturbing trend of overturning juries’ guilty verdicts in cases involving sexual violence” at the court of appeals.

“The majority’s determination perpetuates outdated notions of sexual violence and allows predators to escape accountability,” Singas wrote.

Weinstein maintains his innocence on the charges. The #MeToo movement in Hollywood essentially started with women coming forward about Weinstein’s alleged (in some cases, proven in others) sexual misbehavior. Dozens of women have accused Weinstein of sexual misconduct; not all have sought charges.

Miramax is the studio behind “Pulp Fiction,” “Good Will Hunting,” “Kill Bill,” “No Country for Old Men,” “Clerks,” “Reservoir Dogs,” and many other critical and commercial successes. After he left Miramax, Harvey Weinstein and his brother Bob Weinstein formed The Weinstein Company (“Inglorious Bastards,” “Django Unchained,” “The Hateful Eight,” and others).

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