Weinstein sentenced to 23 years in prison for rape and criminal sexual act after 2020 trial in Manhattan
THE Harvey Weinstein has received a request to appeal his rape and sexual assault conviction to the New York Supreme Court. Chief Judge Janet DiFiore granted the request on Aug. 19, according to Gary Spencer, a spokesman for the Court of Appeals in Albany.
Weinstein was sentenced to 23 years in prison for rape and criminal sexual act after a 2020 trial in Manhattan. He is currently jailed in Los Angeles awaiting trial in October on separate counts of rape and sexual assault involving five women.
In June, a Manhattan appeals court rejected Weinstein’s claims that he was denied a fair trial because the judge made mistakes, including allowing jurors to hear evidence of unwarranted sexual assaults from other female accusers.
His lawyers argued that he was tried and convicted in the agitation of the movement #MeToo and not the specific crimes he was charged with.
During his trial, the jury heard from accusers, including “Sopranos” actress Annabella Sciorra, who testified that Weinstein raped her in the early 1990s. Prosecutors also called Sciorra’s friend, actress Rosie Perez, who confirmed her account.
Prosecutors have won permission to call three more women to show that Harvey Weinstein used “violent coercion” on two victims. Weinstein also maintained throughout the trial that the sexual encounters were consensual.
His downfall, following reports by The New York Times and The New Yorker in 2017 that he had preyed on dozens of women, helped spark the movement #MeToo. This led to a global reckoning on sexual harassment and assault and accusations against many leaders in the entertainment, media and other industries.
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