The New York Court of Appeals overturned Harvey Weinstein‘s 2020 rape conviction. That brings the question of whether Harvey Weinstein will still be in prison after the court update. The disgraced producer is currently serving his prison sentence, but how will this affect his future?
In a 4-3 vote, the New York Court of Appeals found that the judge presiding the case prejudiced the ex-movie mogul with “egregious” improper rulings, including a decision to let women testify about allegations that weren’t part of the case. “We conclude that the trial court erroneously admitted testimony of uncharged, alleged prior sexual acts against persons other than the complainants of the underlying crimes,” the court’s 4-3 decision said. “The remedy for these egregious errors is a new trial.”
The court’s majority said “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.”
“That is unfair to survivors,” Ashley Judd, the first actress to come forward with the allegations, said in a statement to The New York Times. “We still live in our truth. And we know what happened.”
Allegations against the Hollywood producer in 2017 ushered in the #MeToo movement that highlighted the pervasive sexual assault cases in workplaces, especially in entertainment. With a new trial, victims are forced to retell their stories on the witness stand.
Here’s if Harvey Weinstein is still in prison.
Is Harvey Weinstein still in prison?
Harvey Weinstein is still in prison after the case was overturned. According to the New York Times, Weinstein “will not be released as a result of this decision. He will be processed through New York’s justice system and sent to California to continue his sentence on his sex crime convictions there.” The former producer was convicted in Los Angeles in 2022 of another rape and sentenced to 16 years in prison.
Weinstein is currently serving a 23-year sentence in a New York prison following his conviction on charges of criminal sex act for forcibly performing oral sex on a TV and film production assistant in 2006 and rape in the third degree for an attack on an aspiring actress in 2013.
“Weinstein has been held in semi-protective custody at Mohawk Correctional Facility east of Syracuse, where he has spent his days reading and studying the law,” his lawyer said to NYT.
What was Harvey Weinstein convicted of?
On December 19, 2022, a Los Angeles jury found Weinstein guilty of rape but overall, delivered a mixed verdict after deliberating for nine days. He was convicted of raping and sexually assaulting an actress in 2013. In total, he faced seven charges—two of rape and five of sexual assault—stemming from accusations involving four women from 2004 to 2013. He was found guilty of three, rape, forcible oral sex and sexual penetration, involving an Italian actress who testified Weinstein attacked her in 2013. On February 23, 2023, Weinstein was sentenced to 16 years in prison, meaning he’ll spend the rest of his life behind bars.
More than 80 women have accused Weinstein of non-consensual sex for nearly three decades. Ashley Judd is another high-profile actor who has come forward. But according to Twohey and Kantor, Weinstein had been paying off his accusers for years. Their investigation revealed the former king of Hollywood had reached settlements with eight women, including a young assistant in New York in 1990, an actress in 1997, an assistant in London in 1998, an Italian model in 2015 and a colleague, Lauren O’Connor shortly after. In a statement to The Times on October 5, 2017, Weinstein said: “I appreciate the way I’ve behaved with colleagues in the past has caused a lot of pain, and I sincerely apologize for it. Though I’m trying to do better, I know I have a long way to go.”
This story will continue to update.
