Harvey Weinstein’s rape conviction from 2020 overturned

New York’s highest court has overturned Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein’s 2020 rape conviction, citing concerns over a fair trial.

The Court of Appeals concluded that prosecutors had unfairly introduced witnesses whose accusations were unrelated to the charges against him.

According to its ruling, this allowed Weinstein to be judged based on past behavior rather than solely on the crimes for which he was indicted.

Weinstein, 72, will remain incarcerated due to a separate conviction for rape.

In a 4-3 decision announced on Thursday, the court stated that the trial “wrongfully admitted testimony of uncharged, alleged prior sexual acts against persons other than the complainants of the underlying crimes.”

“The remedy for these egregious errors is a new trial,” the ruling declared.

However, one of the dissenting judges criticized the decision, stating that “this Court continues to thwart the steady gains survivors of sexual violence have fought for in our criminal justice system.”

Allegations against Weinstein emerged in 2017, igniting the #MeToo movement, which brought to light sexual abuse within the Hollywood film industry and beyond.

Weinstein faced two trials: one in New York, where he was sentenced to 23 years in 2020 for raping two women, and another in California, where he received a 16-year sentence for raping a woman in a Beverly Hills hotel.