Harvey Weinstein to be retried in New York after rape conviction overturned
The News
Disgraced Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein will be retried after the New York Court of Appeals last week overturned his 2020 rape conviction, the Manhattan District Attorney’s office said in court on Wednesday.
“There was nothing consensual about this conduct,” prosecutor Nicole Blumberg said. “We believe in this case and will be retrying this case.”
Weinstein, 72, was convicted by Manhattan jurors in 2020 of raping an actress in 2013 and sexually assaulting a former production assistant in 2006. But the appeals court found the judge presiding over that case made a critical mistake by allowing three witnesses whose allegations were not part of the criminal charges against him to testify about alleged sexual assaults.
More than 80 women have accused Weinstein of sexual misconduct, with many of their stories coming to light during the #MeToo movement.
Weinstein was sentenced to 16 years in prison last year after a California court found him guilty of raping another former actress in 2013, though the two sentences cannot be served concurrently. He had been serving a 23-year prison sentence in Rome, New York, but had more recently been transferred to a Manhattan hospital following the overturn of his conviction, his lawyer said.
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Weinstein was ordered back into custody pending the new trial. Judge Curtis Farber did not set a specific date, but said it would fall after Labor Day, which is Sept. 2.
His lawyers did not object to the retrial and said they were confident that a court would uphold the ruling to overturn his conviction.
“We’re very confident that if he goes to trial, the only words we’ll hear at the end of trial are ‘not guilty,‘” said Weinstein’s lawyer Arthur Aidala.
The former Hollywood producer has denied having any non-consensual sexual encounters. His other attorney, Gloria Allred, said that she has yet to decide whether Weinstein should testify during his retrial.
