Harvey Weinstein was once the darling of independent movies in Hollywood, his studio was overrepresented in awards season, and he launched the careers of actors and actresses to new heights. Multiple juries of his peers also found him guilty of multiple sexual crimes in multiple jurisdictions.
Harvey Weinstein via FOX 13 Seattle YouTube
On April 25th, 2024, the New York Court of Appeals (which is a higher court than the New York Supreme Court) overturned Harvey Weinstein’s 2020 conviction for felonious sex crimes. This is because the Appeals Court found “…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,” and then, “…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.”.
People sometimes forget that the United States has a federal system of government where each independent republic grants a portion of its governing powers to the larger Union government, so I’ll point out here that this has no effect on Weinstein’s convictions in California. The charges in New York are entirely separate crimes.
If New York’s prosecutors choose they can refile charges and begin the proceedings again. The questions are, do they want to and what are the political advantages/disadvantages now that the #MeToo moment has passed.
Harvey Weinstein via ABC News YouTube
Much of the coverage you’ll see on this talks at length about the effect this will have on the women who testified against Weinstein in the original trial and who may have to testify again. It’s a genuine human interest about which we should all be concerned. Dissenting opinions on the court called it an, “unfortunate step backwards,” and claimed the majority whitewashed, “…the facts to conform to a he-said/she-said narrative.”.
Do I believe he’s guilty? Yes, absolutely!
Do I believe the New York Court of Appeals found correctly in this case? Yeah, probably.
Harvey Weinstein at the 2010 Time 100 Gala. Photo Credit: David Shankbone, CC BY 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
The whole point of an independent judiciary is to create an impartial system for the accused (who are presumed to be innocent in all the united states) to have their cases heard according to a standard set of rules which are known in advance. It doesn’t matter that we all know a person is guilty as sin, we have to follow the process or else someday, when the force of government is brought against us, those same protections will not be there when we need them.
It is natural and good to be incensed by evil. If we allow our laws to be perverted to ensure the conviction of guilty people (and it’s especially easy to give into the temptation when we know they are guilty) then the powerful and connected will have another means of protection for themselves and a weapon they can use against the powerless.
A classic clip from A Man for All Seasons sums it up well.
NEXT: Harvey Weinstein’s Case Kicked Out…And On The Process, We Agree!
