OfViviana Mazza
According to the Court, the judge who sentenced Weinstein to 23 years in prison had called to testify women whose accusations were not part of the indictments against the former producer
FROM OUR CORRESPONDENT
NEW YORK – The New York Court of Appeals has one of the convictions was revoked by Harvey Weinstein for sexual crimes: a symbolic sentence of the MeToo era. The judges, mostly women, decided (4 against 3) that their colleague James Burke who presided over Weinstein’s case in 2020 did a crucial mistakeallowing prosecutors to call some women to testify who had accused the producer of “Pulp Fiction” and “Shakespeare in Love” of having sexually assaulted them but without their stories being part of the charges.
Lauren Young, Dawn Dunning and Tarale Wulff had testified about their encounters with Weinstein under a state law that allows “prior bad acts” to be discussed in court to show consistency over time. But the Court of Appeal ruled that «in our justice system, the accused has the right to be held responsible only for the crime of which he is accused”. Furthermore, Judge Burke had allowed prosecutors – in case Weinstein decided to testify – to question him about it accusations dating back forty years earlier, but not formalized (the arguments with his producer brother, the fits of anger that led him to overturn tables and insult waiters): which convinced him not to testify and, according to his lawyers, penalized his ability to defend himself.
The court therefore concluded that one of the most powerful men in Hollywood, accused of harassment and abuse by more than one hundred women, did not receive a fair trial, being judged not only for his alleged crimes but also for his past behaviors. Now it will be up to Manhattan District Attorney Alvin L. Bragg – the same one who indicted Trump for the payments to porn star Stormy Daniels – decide whether to try Weinstein againwho was also convicted in exactly the same courtroom 1530 where the trial of the former president is currently being held (sitting in exactly the same place).
Weinstein’s lawyer, Arthur Aidala, said: “This is not only a victory for Weinstein, but for every defendant in a criminal trial in New York State.” But the of him witnessed he will not be released, instead he will be transferred to a prison in California.
The Hollywood producer, now 72 years old, is currently locked up in a prison in Rome, New York, the Mohawk Correctional Facility. He continued to proclaim his innocence and states that those sexual relations were always consensual. But even if this sentence a 23 years in prison (for forcing an assistant to perform oral sex in 2006 and for third-degree rape of an aspiring actress in 2013) will have to be reviewedthe one issued against him by a Los Angeles court remains in force: in 2022 he was sentenced to 16 years in prison for raping a woman in a Beverly Hills hotel.
The revocation of the New York sentence reopens a complicated chapter in the issue of sexual violence and how to punish those responsible. His accusers they may have to return to testify again. The actress Ashley Juddone of many who spoke out about the harassment she suffered from Weinstein, told the New York Times that the decision is «unfair to the survivors. But we live in the truth, we know what happened.”
Judge Madeleine Singas, in a dissenting opinion from the main opinion written by Judge Jenny Rivera, said that the New York Court of Appeals’ decision operates “onDisturbing trail of juries overturning guilty verdicts in sexual assault cases”.
This is the second time in the last two years MeToo suffers a major defeat in court, after the Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal of a Pennsylvania court’s decision overturning Bill Cosby’s sexual assault conviction. But the New York ruling against Weinstein, praised by activists, had become the subject of debate among jurists. On the New York Court of Appeals, Governor Kathy Hochul has appointed judges who make it a priority to defend the rights of defendants.
April 25, 2024 (modified April 25, 2024 | 4:47 pm)
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