Harvey Weinstein, the American film producer serving a 23-year sentence in a New York state prison for rape and sexual assault, may have been subjected to “overkill” at his criminal trial last year, said three out of five appellate justices at a hearing on Wednesday.
The Appellate Division, First Judicial Department was hearing 69-year-old Weinstein’s appeal of his conviction.
Three of the five justices expressed “serious concerns” that Justice James Burke, who oversaw the New York trial, had allowed prejudicial evidence that called into question Weinstein’s character.
“You’re really arguing this was not overkill?” one of the justices asked the representative of the Manhattan DA’s office.
Justise Burke had allowed the testimonies of three women who alleged that Weinstein had sexually assaulted them when they had visited him for a business meeting. These were not part of the official charges against the disgraced Hollywood producer.
The justice had also allowed the prosecution to bring up as many as 28 other incidents to strike Weinstein’s credibility, including an instance of him throwing a table full of food at an employee in the late 80s and one of him leaving an employee on the roadside in a foreign country.
The appellate panel questioned the relevance of these incidents to the sex crimes and suggested that the New York judge might have gone too far.
More than 80 women have accused Weinstein of sexual misconduct since October 2017. The producer was subsequently dismissed from Miramax – the production company he had co-founded with his brother Bob Weinstein – and expelled from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science.
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Following a trial at the Manhattan Supreme Court, in February 2020, Weinstein was convicted in New York for mainly two cases: a first-degree criminal sexual act when he forcibly performed oral sex on a production assistant in 2006, and the other for committing third-degree rape in 2013. His conviction was a shot in the arm for the #MeToo movement that witnessed women across the globe coming out with allegations of sexual misconduct and assault at the workplace against powerful men.
It will be several weeks or months before the appellate panel issues an opinion in the case. If they overturn Weinstein’s conviction, it will be up to the Manhattan DA’s office to decide whether to try him again.
Meanwhile, Weinstein was extradited to Los Angeles in June to face trial on 11 charges involving five unnamed women in the state of California. During a hearing on December 8, a Los Angeles court rejected his motion to dismiss the sexual assault and rape charges, setting the stage for him to be formally tried. However, the trial is not expected to begin until Summer 2022.