2024-04-25 21:30:26
New York’s highest appeals court overturned Harvey Weinstein’s 2020 sexual assault and rape convictions, reopening the landmark case that fueled the #MeToo movement and highlighting the challenges of holding powerful men accountable .
Many of the former Hollywood movie mogul’s accusers denounced Thursday’s decision. Actress Ashley Judd told reporters the move was “an act of institutional betrayal.”
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office has indicated it intends to retry Weinstein.
“The remedy for the egregious errors (of the previous trial) is a new trial,” Justice Jenni Rivera wrote on behalf of the majority.
Weinstein (72) is serving a 23-year sentence in an upstate New York prison.
In February 2020, Manhattan jurors found him guilty of sexually assaulting former production assistant Miriam Haley in 2006 and raping up-and-coming actress Jessica Mann in 2013.
The conviction included charges of first-degree sexual assault and third-degree rape. He was acquitted of the other charges.
Weinstein is not expected to be released immediately because he was sentenced in a separate case to 16 years in prison in a ruling last year in California following being convicted of raping an actress in 2013 at a Los Angeles hotel. Angeles. This belief still holds.
Weinstein’s conviction in New York was seen as a milestone for the “#MeToo” movement, when women accused hundreds of men in entertainment, media, politics and other fields of sexual misconduct.
Some states, including New York, have responded to the #MeToo movement by passing laws allowing women to file civil lawsuits for sexual misconduct that occurred many years ago, even if the statute of limitations has already passed.
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