Harvey Weinstein's Sexual Crime Conviction Overturned by New York Supreme Court

The conviction of Harvey Weinstein for sexual crimes has been overturned. The New York State Supreme Court has ruled that the judge who in February 2020 had sentenced him to 23 years in prison made a mistake by calling to testify women whose accusations were not part of the charges against the former producer. Weinstein was then convicted of rape in 2022 to serve an additional sentence of 16 years in prison in Los Angeles. It is now up to New York prosecutor Alvin Bragg to decide whether to re-indict the former Miramax boss. The decision of the New York Court was made four to three by a panel of judges, the majority of whom were women.

The Testimonies

In 2020, Lauren Young and two other women, Dawn Dunning and Tarale Wulff, testified about their encounters with Weinstein under a state law that allows testimony on "prior bad acts" to demonstrate a pattern of bad behavior by the defendant. Today the Court has ruled that "in our justice system, the accused has the right to answer only for the crime for which they have been charged".

#MeToo

More than a hundred women accused Weinstein of sexual crimes in 2018 and their collective stories were the cornerstone on which the #MeToo movement was founded. However, legally the conviction in New York of the former Miramax boss has always been controversial and the appeals by his lawyers, according to experts, always had a chance.