Harvey Weinstein Is Appealing 2020 Rape Conviction. New York’s Top Court To Hear Arguments

NEW YORK — Nearly four years after Harvey Weinstein was convicted of rape and sentenced to prison, New York’s top court will hear arguments Wednesday in his bid to reverse the landmark #MeToo verdict.

Weinstein’s lawyers are requesting that the state’s Court of Appeals in Albany overturn the disgraced movie mogul’s 2020 conviction, alleging that the judge violated his right to a fair trial by “succumbing to the pressure” of America’s reckoning with sexual misbehaviour perpetrated by powerful persons.

The judge, James Burke, accepted testimony from three women whose allegations were not part of the prosecution and ordered that prosecutors might question Weinstein about other unconnected misbehaviour if he testified, which he refused to do.

Harvey Weinstein Is Appealing 2020 Rape Conviction. New York’s Top Court To Hear Arguments

“What we’re arguing is that there should not be a different set of rules for an individual in society who becomes vilified,” Weinstein’s lawyer, Arthur Aidala, explained. There is no such thing as “the Weinstein rule that just applies to that little sliver of society that everyone decides to really hate,” that’s what he stated.

Weinstein, 71, was convicted on February 24, 2020, of a criminal sex act for forcibly performing oral sex on a TV and film production assistant in 2006, as well as third-degree rape for an attack on an aspiring actress in 2013. He was sentenced to 23 years in jail and is currently housed at the Mohawk Correctional Facility, a state prison about 100 miles (161 kilometres) northwest of Albany.

At the same Manhattan trial, Weinstein was found not guilty of first-degree rape and two counts of predatory sexual assault stemming from actor Annabella Sciorra’s allegations of rape in the mid-1990s. The Associated Press does not usually identify persons who allege sexual assault unless they agree to be named; Sciorra has spoken publicly about her allegations.

Last year, Weinstein was convicted in Los Angeles of raping and sexually abusing an Italian actor and model who claimed he showed up unannounced at her hotel room door at a film festival in 2013. In that case, he was sentenced to an extra 16 years in prison, so even if the Court of Appeals ruled in his favour, he would remain incarcerated.

Harvey Weinstein Is Appealing 2020 Rape Conviction. New York’s Top Court To Hear Arguments

Weinstein maintains his innocence. He claims all sexual interaction was consensual. He is not anticipated to attend Wednesday’s hearings, just for the New York case, but he may watch the court’s webcast from prison. The court is unlikely to rule immediately.

The New York Court of Appeals agreed last year to hear Weinstein’s case after an intermediate appellate court upheld his conviction. Weinstein’s attorneys seek a second trial, but just for the criminal sexual act charge. They contend that the rape accusation cannot be retried since the alleged activity occurred outside of the statute of limitations.

Allegations against Weinstein, the once-powerful and feared studio leader behind Oscar triumphs like “Pulp Fiction” and “Shakespeare in Love,” sparked the #MeToo movement. His trial in New York received widespread attention, with protesters yelling “rapist” outside the courthouse.

Weinstein’s attorneys stated in their appeal that Burke impacted the trial’s outcome by repeatedly ruling in favour of prosecutors, including decisions that “overwhelmed” the trial with “excessive, random, and highly dubious prior bad act evidence.” Burke’s term ended at the end of 2022. He was not reappointed and hence no longer serves as a judge.

If Weinstein had testified, Burke decided that prosecutors might have questioned him on more than two dozen alleged incidents of boorish behaviour over 30 years, including whether he had stranded a colleague in a foreign country or yelled at restaurant staff while demanding a late-night lunch.

Weinstein’s lawyers claimed Burke’s findings went beyond what is generally permitted — identifying motive, opportunity, intent, or a common strategy or plan — and effectively put the former studio boss on trial for crimes he was not charged with and had no opportunity to defend himself against. That evidence would have “only served to make the jury hate Weinstein,” his lawyers claimed.

The rules for calling witnesses to testify and permitting prosecutors to introduce evidence about “prior bad acts” and the actual accusations differ by state. New York’s rules are among the strictest.

Harvey Weinstein Is Appealing 2020 Rape Conviction. New York’s Top Court To Hear Arguments

They also questioned Burke’s refusal to remove a jury who had written a novel about predatory older men, as well as his choice to allow prosecutors to speak on victim behaviour and rape myths while rejecting defence expert testimony on the same topics.

In 2022, a five-judge panel in New York’s intermediate appellate court concluded unanimously that Burke had “providently exercised” his discretion despite the fact that some of the justices had previously expressed concerns about his actions. During oral arguments, Judge Sallie Manzanet-Daniels stated that Burke had allowed prosecutors to pile on “incredibly prejudicial testimony” from other witnesses.

Aidala has asked the Court of Appeals to remind the state’s trial courts “that a defendant cannot be tried based on his character — but must be tried based on the conduct for which he has been accused.”

SOURCE – (AP)