An appeals court in New York has overturned a rape conviction against disgraced Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein, and ordered that he face a new trial.
By a narrow 4-3 ruling, the New York State Court of Appeals found that the judge in Weinstein’s 2020 trial in Manhattan, James Burke, “erroneously” allowed testimony from three women, whose allegations weren’t connected to the case, to be presented as evidence.
Judge Burke then “compounded that error” by ruling that Weinstein could be asked about the women’s accusations on the witness stand if he chose to testify, along with “numerous” other allegations of misconduct that portrayed him in “a highly prejudicial light”.
“The remedy for these egregious errors is a new trial,” the appeals court said.
“It is an abuse of judicial discretion to permit untested allegations of nothing more than bad behavior that destroy a defendant’s character but shed no light on their credibility as related to the criminal charges lodged against them,” the court’s majority said.
In her dissenting opinion, Judge Madeline Singas argued the majority was “whitewashing the facts” to “conform to a he said/she said narrative” and perpetuating a “disturbing trend of overturning juries’ guilty verdicts in cases involving sexual violence”.
She accused her fellow judges of allowing “predators to escape accountability”.
A lawyer representing Weinstein, Arthur Aidala, said the former Hollywood giant’s legal team had “all worked very hard” and the ruling should be marked as “a tremendous victory for every criminal defendant in the state of New York”.
Despite the ruling Weinstein, now 72 years old, will remain imprisoned, and he remains a convicted rapist.
In a separate case, he was also convicted of rape in California, and in Feburary of 2023 was therefore sentenced to 16 years in jail.
Representatives for the Manhattan District-Attorney’s office have yet to comment on the appeals court’s decision.
Judge’s improper influence
The stream of sexual misconduct allegations against Weinstein helped fuel the Me Too movement, with dozens of women coming forward to accuse him.
He continues to deny any wrongdoing.
Arguing before the appeals court in February, Mr Aidala claimed Judge Burke had improperly influenced Weinstein’s New York trial, and hence tainted the verdict, by opening him up to questioning on allegations that were not part of the case against him.
Mr Aidala said Weinstein would have testified if not for the judge’s rulings.
“We had a defendant who was begging to tell his side of the story. It’s a he said/she said case, and he’s saying, ‘That’s not how it happened,’” Mr Aidala said.
Prior to Thursday’s ruling, lower appeals courts had upheld Weinstein’s conviction, while also expressing reservations about Judge Burke’s conduct in the case.
The decision as to whether prosecutors seek a retrial of Weinstein in New York will ultimately fall to District-Attorney Alvin Bragg, who is currently also in the headlines for his prosecution of former US president Donald Trump.
Weinstein’s disgrace
The accusations against Weinstein emerged in 2017 and involved decades of alleged abuse suffered by female members of the entertainment industry, including high profile actresses like Rose McGowan and Ashley Judd.
As the dam broke, Weinstein was swiftly dropped by his powerful production company. His conduct was at the genesis of the Me Too movement, which brought a reckoning against the alleged long-term abuse of women at the heart of Hollywood.
Weinstein was arrested on the New York charges in 2018, and despite the appeals court’s decision, will likely remain in prison until he dies.