The New York Court of Appeals announced this Thursday the annulment of the 23-year prison sentence against Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein, sentenced in December 2020 for crimes of rape and sexual abuse, and has ordered the holding of a new judgment.
The court has concluded that the court of first instance that addressed the trial against Weinstein “erroneously admitted” to trial the testimonies of women victims of a series of abuses that were not part of the case in question, according to the American network CNN.
Thus, in addition to this first “error”, that court “aggravated” the situation when it ruled that Weinstein, who at that time had no criminal record, could be questioned about those accusations and other testimonies that presented the accused “in a light.” highly harmful”.
Weinstein, 72, was convicted in 2020 of first-degree criminal sexual act and third-degree rape. During the trial, Miriam Haley and Jessica Mann testified, although three other women who were not involved in the trial but who denounced “previous bad acts” also testified.
The prosecutors in the case tried to demonstrate with the testimony of these other three women that the famous film producer had a pattern of sexual abuse. The Weinstein scandal gave rise to the #MeToo movement (‘Me Too’, in Spanish) with which hundreds of women reported having suffered episodes of sexual abuse.
Weinstein is currently serving his sentence at the Mohawk Correctional Center in New York. In February 2023 he was sentenced to another 16 years in prison by the Los Angeles Justice Department also for crimes of rape and sexual assault.