New York’s highest appeals court has thrown out Harvey Weinstein’s sexual assault and rape convictions in 2020, reopening the landmark case that sparked the #MeToo movement and highlighting the challenges involves holding powerful men accountable.
Many of the former Hollywood film prosecutors denounced the verdict released on Thursday. Actress Ashley Judd told reporters that the decision was “an act of institutional betrayal.”
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office has announced that it plans to retry Weinstein.
“The remedy for the egregious errors (of the previous trial) is a new trial,” wrote Justice Jenni Rivera for the majority of justices.
Weinstein (72 years old) is serving a 23-year prison sentence in a New York prison.
In February 2020, Manhattan jurors convicted him 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 other charges.
Weinstein is not expected to be released immediately because he was sentenced to 16 years in prison in a separate case, in a ruling handed down last year in California after was convicted of raping an actress in 2013 in a hotel in Los Angeles. This conviction remains.
Weinstein’s conviction in New York was considered a milestone for the “#MeToo” movement, when women accused hundreds of men in entertainment, the media, politics and other fields of sexual misconduct.
Some states, including New York, have responded to the #MeToo movement by passing laws that allow women to file civil suits for sexual misconduct that occurred years ago even if the legislation has already passed.
