New York appeals court overturns Harvey Weinstein's 2020 rape conviction from landmark #MeToo trial
Harvey Weinstein is serving a lengthy jail sentence for other sex crimes, but will now face a retrial, as ITV News Correspondent Robert Moore reports
New York's highest court overturned Harvey Weinstein's 2020 rape conviction on Thursday.
It found the judge at the landmark #MeToo trial prejudiced the ex-movie mogul with "egregious" improper rulings.
Actress Ashley Judd, who was among the first women to make allegations on the record against Weinstein, said the court's decision was "unfair to survivors".
"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 court's 4-3 decision said.
"The remedy for these egregious errors is a new trial."
One of the key issues the court found was a decision to let women testify about allegations that were not part of the case.
The state Court of Appeals ruling re-opens a chapter in America with sexual misconduct allegations against powerful figures being exposed.
The #MeToo era began to gain widespread momentum in 2017, with a flood of allegations against Weinstein and other big names in Hollywood.
After Thursday's ruling, his accusers could be forced to relive their traumas again on the witness stand.
Weinstein's lawyer Arthur Aidala said immediately after the ruling came out: "We all worked very hard and this is a tremendous victory for every criminal defendant in the state of New York."
Attorney Douglas H. Wigdor, who has represented eight of the 72-year-olds accusers including two witnesses at the New York criminal trial, called the ruling "a major step back in holding those accountable for acts of sexual violence".
Weinstein has been serving a 23-year sentence in a New York prison, following his conviction on charges of criminal sex acts.
The first was for forcibly performing oral sex on a TV and film production assistant in 2006 and the second being rape in the third degree for an attack on an aspiring actress in 2013.
He will remain imprisoned because he was convicted in Los Angeles in 2022 of another rape and sentenced to 16 years in prison.
Weinstein, the studio boss behind such Oscar winners as "Pulp Fiction" and "Shakespeare in Love", was acquitted in Los Angeles on charges involving one of the women who testified in New York.
Dozens of women came forward to accuse Weinstein, including famous actresses such as Ms Judd and Uma Thurman.
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"We Live In Our Truth. We know what happened," Ms Judd wrote on Instagram, following the court ruling.
Speaking at a press conference in New York City on Thursday, Ms Judd said: "This today is an act of institutional betrayal.
"And our institutions betray survivors of male sexual violence, and we need to work within and without the systems to start having what is known as 'institutional courage'."
Activist Tarana Burke, who started the #MeToo movement, also spoke at the event and said: "Many people, many survivors and those who love and support survivors probably thought that that original verdict meant that there was going to be a change, that it marked a change, marked a difference in how this justice system was going to move and operate.
"And I think that we felt, and a lot of us felt, that we were on a road to seeing a different America. And this moment makes it feel like we were wrong."
His New York trial drew intense publicity, with protesters chanting "rapist" outside the courthouse.
Weinstein is incarcerated in New York at the Mohawk Correctional Facility, about 100 miles northwest of Albany.
He maintains his innocence and contends any sexual activity was consensual.
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