New York’s highest court overturned Harvey Weinstein’s 2020 rape conviction on Thursday, April 25. According to the 4-3 ruling, the judge in the 2020 trial prejudiced the former movie mogul with “egregious” improper rulings, including by allowing women to testify about allegations that weren’t part of the case.
“Under our system of justice, the accused has a right to be held to account only for the crime charged and, thus, allegations of prior bad acts may not be admitted against them for the sole purpose of establishing their propensity for criminality,” the reversal decision read. “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 remedy for these egregious errors is a new trial.”
The 72-year-old Weinstein has been serving a 23-year sentence in prison in New York following his conviction on charges for forcing a production assistant to participate in oral sex in 2006 and rape in the third degree for another attack in 2013. Weinstein has continued to maintain his innocence, contending that any sexual activity was entirely consensual. His attorney argued before the appeals court on Friday that the original judge swayed the trial by allowing three women to testify about allegations that weren’t part of the case and by giving prosecutors permission to confront the defendant, if he had testified, about his behavioral history – a decision that led to Weinstein opting not to testify, even though he said he had wanted to.
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