{"id":311266,"date":"2024-04-26T16:39:47","date_gmt":"2024-04-26T21:39:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=311266"},"modified":"2024-04-26T13:35:47","modified_gmt":"2024-04-26T18:35:47","slug":"new-york-overturns-rape-convictions-harvey-weinstein","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/new-york-overturns-rape-convictions-harvey-weinstein\/","title":{"rendered":"New York court overturns one of the rape convictions against Harvey Weinstein"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A New York Court has overturned<\/a> the 2020 rape conviction of disgraced Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein. His\u00a0conviction in California, however, still stands.<\/p>\n

In a 4-3 decision, an appeals court found that the judge had acted wrongly in allowing prosecutors to admit “testimony of uncharged, alleged prior sexual acts against persons other than the complainants of the underlying crimes.” Judge Jenny Rivera labeled it an “egregious” mistake, and called for a new trial to be held.<\/p>\n

\u201c… [T]hat testimony served no material non-propensity purpose,\u201d the court said in its decision. \u201cThe court compounded that error when it ruled that defendant, who had no criminal history, could be cross examined about those allegations as well as numerous allegations of misconduct that portrayed defendant in a highly prejudicial light.”<\/p>\n

Judge Madeline Singas, one of the dissenters, wrote a scathing opinion. The judges who voted with the majority, she said, were \u201cwhitewashing the facts to conform to a he-said\/she-said narrative.” She further said, \u201cThis Court has continued a disturbing trend of overturning juries\u2019 guilty verdicts in cases involving sexual violence.”<\/p>\n

Weinstein’s lawyers have also been pursuing an appeal for his conviction in California, and hope that the New York decision could strengthen<\/a> the argument for that conviction to be overturned.<\/p>\n

Arthur Aidala, one of Weinstein’s lawyers, openly celebrated the ruling, calling it a “great day” for the country.<\/p>\n

Jennifer Bonjean, another of his lawyers, said the New York ruling directly impacts the California case. \u201cA jury was told in California that he was convicted in another state for rape \u2026 Turns out he shouldn\u2019t have been convicted, and it wasn\u2019t a fair conviction,\u201d she said. \u201cIt interfered with his presumption of innocence in a significant way in California.\u201d<\/p>\n