A New York court has overturned Harvey Weinstein\u2019s 2020 conviction for rape, ordering a new trial in a landmark \u201cMeToo\u201d case.
\nIn a 4-3 decision, the state Court of Appeals said the trial judge made a mistake by letting prosecutors introduce testimony from women who claimed that Weinstein assaulted them, even though they were not part of the charges he faced.
\nThe appeals court also said the trial judge compounded the error by letting Weinstein be cross-examined in a way that portrayed him in a \u201chighly prejudicial\u201d light.
\n\u201cThe remedy for these egregious errors is a new trial,\u201d the court said.
\nWeinstein has been serving a 23-year prison sentence, after being convicted in February 2020 of sexually assaulting a former production assistant in 2006, and raping an aspiring actress in 2013.
\nIt will now be up to Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, whose predecessor Cyrus Vance brought the case, to decide whether to retry Weinstein.
\nBragg\u2019s office is separately in the midst of a criminal hush money trial against former U.S. president Donald Trump.
\nA spokesperson for Bragg did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Weinstein\u2019s lawyer did not immediately respond to a similar request.
\nThe verdict was considered a milestone for #MeToo, in which women have accused hundreds of men in entertainment, media, politics and other fields of sexual misconduct.
\nWeinstein co-founded the Miramax film studio, whose hit movies included \u201cShakespeare in Love\u201d and \u201cPulp Fiction.\u201d His own eponymous film studio filed for bankruptcy in March 2018.
\nHe was separately sentenced last year in California to 16 years in prison after being convicted there for the 2013 rape of an actress in Los Angeles.
\n(With information from Reuters and Sky News)Court decision. New York court, Harvey Weinstein, rape<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Harvey Weinstein’s 2020 rape conviction has been overturned by a New York court, leading to a new trial in the landmark #MeToo case. The court found that the trial judge made errors by allowing testimony from women not part of the charges and by allowing prejudicial cross-examination. The decision now rests with Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg on whether to retry Weinstein, who is currently serving a 23-year prison sentence.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":9666,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"Default","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[3385,3894,279,4543,932,581,166,207,5332,2515,2164,952,7899,1126,6242,1276,7776,2952,7924,2628,1277,393,7926,3331,4593,301,4843,131,1462,912,2871,2920,836,1609,6397,2503,618,114,1906,841,3523,7925,6305,1100,18],"class_list":["post-9665","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-other","tag-california","tag-charges","tag-comment","tag-conviction","tag-court","tag-court-of-appeals","tag-donald-trump","tag-entertainment","tag-errors","tag-february","tag-film","tag-gender-equality","tag-harvey-weinstein","tag-hollywood","tag-judge","tag-los-angeles","tag-march","tag-media","tag-metoo","tag-money","tag-movies","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-court","tag-news","tag-office","tag-politics","tag-president","tag-prison","tag-prison-sentence","tag-rape","tag-request","tag-sentence","tag-sexual-abuse","tag-sexual-misconduct","tag-sky-news","tag-testimony","tag-top","tag-top-news","tag-trial","tag-trump","tag-u-s-president","tag-weinstein","tag-who","tag-women","tag-world"],"acf":{"keyphrase":"","keywords":"","sourceimg":"","country-category":""},"yoast_head":"\n