The New York Court of Appeals overturned the 2020 rape conviction of disgraced film producer Harvey Weinstein on Thursday.
The court asserted that the trial judge had made an error by permitting testimony from women who were not part of the trio that filed the complaint against him.
The New York Times reports actress and Weinstein accuser Katherine Kendall expressed her dismay at the ruling, stating it was “a terrible reminder that victims of sexual assault just don’t get justice.” adding,
“I’m completely let down by the justice system right now. I’m sort of flabbergasted,” she added.
The Post Millennial reported that the judges declared “the remedy for these egregious errors is a new trial” in the conclusion of their 4-3 opinion.
Judge Rivera argued in his opinion that the trial judge “erroneously admitted testimony of uncharged, alleged prior sexual acts against persons other than the complainants of the underlying crimes.”
“Under our system of justice,” Rivera said, “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.”
“… It is an abuse of judicial discretion to permit untested allegations of nothing more than bad behavior that destroys a defendant’s character but sheds no light on their credibility as related to the criminal charges lodged against them,” the opinion added.
The court, however, rejected Weinstein’s assertion that the prosecution for third-degree rape was time-barred, affirming that he could be retried on this charge, per USA TODAY.
A spokesperson for Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office said to NBC News, “We will do everything in our power to retry this case,” adding that they “remain steadfast in our commitment to survivors of sexual assault.”
Weinstein is currently incarcerated in upstate New York and will notably continue serving his 16-year sentence, which was imposed in a separate rape case in Los Angeles.
He has been serving a 23-year sentence in New York after being convicted on allegations of forcibly performing oral sex on a woman and raping another woman.
The Silence Breakers, which consists of at least 10 Weinstein victims, told The Daily Beast, “The news today is not only disheartening, but it’s profoundly unjust.”
“But this ruling does not diminish the validity of our experiences or our truth; it’s merely a setback. The man found guilty continues to serve time in a California prison,” they added.
“When survivors everywhere broke their silence in 2017, the world changed. We continue to stand strong and advocate for that change. We will continue to fight for justice for survivors everywhere,” they continued.
Italian model Ambra Battilana Gutierrez, who testified in the Los Angeles rape trial against Weinstein, spoke to The Daily Beast too, blasting the ruling points an an example of the “ongoing failure of the justice system, and the courts, to take survivors seriously and to protect our interests.”
The post Harvey Weinstein’s Rape Conviction Overturned By New York Appeals Court appeared first on Resist the Mainstream.
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Author: Jordyn M.
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