Weinstein sex offences conviction overturned

The disgraced Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein's 2020 conviction for sexual offences, which became pivotal in the #MeToo movement, has been overturned by a New York appeals court. Prosecutors said they would retry the case.

- Gloria Oladipo

In a 4-3 decision, the state of New York court of appeals ruled that the judge who presided over Weinstein's 2020 case prejudiced the ex-movie mogul's position with "egregious" improper rulings and was mistaken in allowing other women whose accusations were nota part of the 2020 case to testify.

"[Weinstein] was convicted by a jury for various sexual crimes against three named complainants and, on appeal, [he] claims he was judged, not on the conduct for which he was indicted, but on irrelevant, prejudicial, and untested allegations of prior bad acts," read yesterday's decision.

"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... the remedy for these egregious errors is a new trial."

In a striking dissent, Judge Madeline Singas accused the ruling majority of "whitewashing the facts to conform to a he-said/she-said narrative", adding that the appeals court was participating in a "disturbing trend of overturning juries' guilty verdicts in cases involving sexual violence".

"The majority's determination perpetuates outdated notions of sexual violence and allows predators to escape accountability," Singas wrote.