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(Updated with statement from Weinstein spokesperson & Silence Breakers) New York’s highest court on Thursday overturned Harvey Weinstein’s 2020 conviction on felony sex crime charges, ordering a new trial. However, that doesn’t mean the Pulp Fiction producer will be stepping out of prison any time soon.
In a 4-3 ruling (read it below), the New York Court of Appeals flipped Weinstein’s conviction, stating the judge in charge of the trial “erroneously admitted testimony of uncharged, alleged prior sexual acts against persons other than the complainants of the underlying crimes.”
“Defendant was convicted by a jury for various sexual crimes against three named complainants and, on appeal, claims that he was judged, not on the conduct for which he was indicted, but on irrelevant, prejudicial, and untested allegations of prior bad acts,” Judge Jenny Rivera wrote in the Appeals Court ruling of the verdict against Weinstein and his subsequent 23-year sentence on March 11, 2020.
First charged and arrested for rape in May 2018 after detailed revelations by the New York Times in October 2017 into decades of abuse and alleged assaults by Weinstein, the producer was convicted in February 2020 on first-degree sexual assault and three years for third-degree rape, to be served consecutively. In a trial that saw Annabella Sciorra and several other women testify about alleged abuse from Weinstein, the producer was also ordered to register as a sex offender, a registration that likely will be removed based on the Appeals Court ruling this week.
“We conclude that the trial court erroneously admitted testimony of uncharged, alleged prior sexual acts against persons other than the complainants of the underlying crimes because that testimony served no material non-propensity purpose,” Judge Rivera added for the Appeals Court majority of the trial overseen over four years ago by New York Supreme Court Judge James Burke. “The court compounded that error when it ruled that defendant, who had no criminal history, could be cross examined about those allegations as well as numerous allegations of misconduct that portrayed defendant in a highly prejudicial light. The synergistic effect of these errors was not harmless.”
“We will do everything in our power to retry this case, and remain steadfast in our commitment to survivors of sexual assault,” the Manhattan District Attorney’s office said in a statement Thursday.
In a move that reeks of the sharp elbows of New York City realpolitik, James Burke was not reappointed in 2022, and is no longer a serving judge.
“We’re cautiously excited,” Weinstein spokesperson Juda Engelmayer told Deadline this morning after the ruling was made public. “He still has a long road ahead of him because of the Los Angeles case. We are studying the ramifications of the appeal right now.”
The much accused one-time mini-mogul was convicted in Los Angeles in late 2022 for another rape and sentenced to 16 years in prison.
Years in the making, Weinstein’s New York appeal was argued before the judges by defense lawyer Arthur Aidala and prosecutors from the Manhattan District Attorney’s office back in February. Along with Aidala, who was on Weinstein’s unsuccessful 2020 defense team, the producer is also represented in his appeal by retired NY Supreme Court Judge Barry Kamins and Diane Fabi Sampson of Aidala Bertuna & Kamins PC.
A lower court had previously turned down Weinstein’s request for an appeal before Janet DiFiore, the chief judge of the New York State Court of Appeals, ruled in August 2022 to grant the request