NY Appeals Court Overturns Conviction Against Harvey Weinstein

By Dustin Rowles | Celebrity | April 25, 2024 |

By Dustin Rowles | Celebrity | April 25, 2024 |

This sucks. A New York appeals court, in a 4-3 decision, has overturned a conviction against Harvey Weinstein for a felony sex crime. It took four years for the appeals court to come to a decision, but the court decided that it was unfair for prosecutors to call witnesses who had allegedly been sexually assaulted to testify against Weinstein because their assaults had nothing to do with the charges being tried against Weinstein.

You know how all those TV shows where the lawyers don’t want the defendant to testify because doing so would allow the court to introduce additional evidence to impeach his character? I think that’s what happened here, only the prosecutors introduced the evidence despite the fact that Weinstein did not take the witness stand. A state law allowed evidence of prior bad acts to demonstrate a pattern of behavior, but the appeals court believes that the conviction of Weinstein was unfairly biased by prior bad acts unrelated to the bad act for which he was being tried.

The appeals court wrote, “Under our system of justice, the accused has a right to be held to account only for the crime charged.” The ruling did not come as a complete surprise to many who believed that the appeal had a chance. It’s one of those shitty technicalities where procedure is prioritized over justice, but there is also a reason why these procedures exist. The DA, Alvin Bragg, can still decide to retry the case against Weinstein.

Thankfully, Weinstein will not be released from prison. He is still serving 16 years on a sexual assault conviction secured in California in 2022. He is unlikely to live long enough to see the world from outside a prison. Let that be a small blessing.