HARVEY WEINSTEIN’S RAPE CONVICTION OVERTURNED: WHAT THE COURT ARGUED, ITS IMPLICATIONS
New York’s highest court overturned former Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein’s 2020 rape conviction on Thursday (April 26), which had been a landmark case in the #MeToo movement.
Ordering a fresh trial, the New York Court of Appeals concluded that the judge in the earlier trial prejudiced Weinstein with improper rulings. What was the case about, and what does it mean for Weinstein? We explain.
What was the rape allegation against Harvey Weinstein?
In October 2017, The New York Times published an investigative story about Weinstein’s alleged history of sexual harassment, abuse, and backdoor settlements, saying he paid off at least eight women who accused him of sexual misconduct. He was also said to have used his power in Hollywood to take advantage of young women.
Following the allegations, the floodgates for similar accusations against powerful men opened up and saw women raise awareness about fighting back, in what came to be known as the MeToo movement. It also spread to other industries and other parts of the world.
Three years later, a New York court found Weinstein guilty of sexually assaulting a former production assistant in 2006 and for the rape of an aspiring actress in 2013. Subsequently, he was convicted of a first-degree criminal sexual act and third-degree rape and sentenced to 23 years in prison.
However, this conviction was overturned on Thursday.
Why was the 2020 ruling overturned?
According to The NYT, the Court of Appeals said that Justice James M. Burke, who presided over the case, “erred” in letting prosecutors call witnesses who said Weinstein assaulted them. This was because their accusations were not included in the charges against him.
Despite the large number of Weinstein’s victims, not many could meet the minimum requirements for a criminal trial in the New York case. The NYT said this is for multiple reasons. First, several stories were about sexual harassment, which is a civil violation and not a criminal one.
While criminal cases are brought by the state or government to punish offenders for violating criminal laws and may result in imprisonment, fines, probation, and counselling, civil cases are those where the victim sues the accused for compensation for the harm caused by assault. The latter does not result in criminal penalties like imprisonment.
Other witnesses’ cases fell beyond the statute of limitations – the period within which legal cases need to be brought to court.
The trial proceeded based on the testimonies of two victims, who accused Weinstein of sexual assault but also admitted to consensual sexual activity at other times, The NYT reported. It said experts deemed this as a messy and fragile basis for conviction.
Another term central to the decision to overturn the 2020 conviction was the presence of the “Molineux witnesses” also known as “prior bad act” witnesses.
What are Molineux witnesses?
Molineux witnesses refer to witnesses who are permitted to testify about criminal acts that the defendant hasn’t been charged with committing. The NYT’s analysis of the 2020 decision states that a majority of the women weren’t named in the charges but still called on as witnesses.
The term originated from the New York Court of Appeals decision in ‘People v. Molineux’ (1991) and allows prosecutors to give proof of a defendant’s prior bad acts or crimes to “establish motive, opportunity, intent, common scheme or plan, knowledge, identity, or absence of mistake or accident.”
In her judgment, Justice Jenny Rivera relied on the 1991 ruling to say that under the state’s justice system, the accused has a right to be held to account only for the crime charged. Allegations of prior bad acts may not be admitted against them for the sole purpose of establishing their propensity for criminality.
Citing a 1974 ruling of the court in 'People v. Sandoval', the court said the prosecution cannot use “prior convictions or proof of the prior commission of specific, criminal, vicious, or immoral acts”.
She said that the 2020 verdict, which relied on the Molineux principle, went against the Supreme Court's 1886 ruling in 'Boyd vs. United States'. Here, a note was made of the court’s solemn duty to diligently guard the accused’s rights regardless of their reputation, the crime charged with, or the pressure to convict.
What is the other case against Harvey Weinstein in Los Angeles?
According to the Associated Press, Weinstein will remain imprisoned because he was convicted of another rape case and sentenced to 16 years in prison in 2022.
The December 2022 LA ruling involved a jury in the LA Superior Court, which found Weinstein guilty of sexual penetration by a foreign object, forcible oral sex, and rape. Weinstein’s team of lawyers will challenge this on May 20.
Although the case stemmed from accusations brought by documentary filmmaker Jennifer Siebel Newsom, the jury also found Weinstein guilty of raping an Italian actress who said he attacked her in a hotel room in 2013.
In the LA case too, prosecutors used witnesses who accused Weinstein of sex crimes he hadn’t been charged with. However, California state laws surrounding witnesses are different from the ones in New York. For instance, California law allows prosecutors to show that a defendant’s sexually predatory conduct is part of a pattern. Essentially, it allows evidence of similar crimes in sexual assault cases, as this is considered relevant to the main case.
Notably, the overturning of Weinstein’s conviction is the second biggest setback to #MeToo recently. In 2021, a Pennsylvania court decided to throw out actor Bill Cosby’s conviction on sexual assault and release him from prison. The next year, the US Supreme Court refused to consider a challenge to the court’s actions.
Just like in Cosby's case, any appeal against the New York Court of Appeals’ decision on Weinstein will now lie before the Supreme Court.
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2024-04-26T11:48:37Z dg43tfdfdgfd