New York’s highest court on Thursday overturned disgraced Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein’s 2020 conviction on sex crime charges, a shock reversal in one of the defining cases of the #MeToo movement.
In its 4-3 decision, the Court of Appeals found the trial judge had erred in admitting the testimony of women who were not named in the charges brought against Weinstein, and ordered a new trial.
The ruling however doesn’t affect a separate 16-year rape sentence, handed down in California in 2022, meaning the once-untouchable Hollywood heavyweight will remain behind bars.
“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,” Judge Jenny Rivera wrote in an opinion for the majority.
Bombshell allegations broke against the Academy Award winning producer in 2017, launching the #MeToo movement that paved the way for women to fight back against sexual violence in the workplace.
Weinstein, 72, had been convicted in a New York court in February 2020, of the rape and sexual assault of ex-actress Jessica Mann in 2013 and of forcibly performing oral sex on former production assistant Mimi Haleyi in 2006. He was later sentenced to 23 years in prison.
“The news today is not only disheartening, but it’s profoundly unjust,” said a statement from The Silence Breakers, a group of women who banded together to report Weinstein’s misconduct. “But this ruling does not diminish the validity of our experiences or our truth; it’s merely a setback.”
