Court overturns 2020 rape conviction of Harvey Weinstein

The New York state Court of Appeals on Thursday overturned the disgraced Hollywood mogul’s 2020 conviction for rape, for which he received a 23-year prison sentence. Weinstein had argued on appeal that he had not been presumed to be innocent before his conviction. He also had argued he was tried using evidence from prior conduct, for which he had not been convicted or even tried. Weinstein will remain in prison, where he will continue to serve out a 16-year sentence he received in 2022 from a California court for a separate rape conviction.

What did the court decide? The state Court of Appeals—which is New York’s highest court—said the trial court erred when it admitted unproven allegations against Weinstein into the record as evidence. The court said it also should not have allowed him to be cross-examined about the unproven allegations. At the time of the trial, Weinstein had no criminal history. Still, according to the Appeals Court, prosecutors confronted him with unproven allegations that cast him in a highly prejudicial light. The only appropriate remedy was a new trial, the Court of Appeals said.

Dig deeper: From the WORLD archives, read Lynde Langdon’s report about Harvey Weinstein’s 2020 conviction.