New York appeals court overturns Harvey Weinstein’s 2020 rape conviction

[The Deadman]

https://apnews.com/article/weinstein...71e8bd3574c4a3

NEW YORK (AP) — New York's highest court on Thursday overturned Harvey Weinstein 's 2020 rape conviction, finding the judge at the landmark #MeToo trial prejudiced the ex-movie mogul with "egregious" improper rulings, including a decision to let women testify about allegations that weren't part of the case.

"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."

The state Court of Appeals ruling reopens a painful chapter in America's reckoning with sexual misconduct by powerful figures — an era that began in 2017 with a flood of allegations against Weinstein. His accusers could again be forced to retell their stories on the witness stand.

The court's majority said "it is an abuse of judicial discretion to permit untested allegations of nothing more than bad behavior that destroys a defendant's character but sheds no light on their credibility as related to the criminal charges lodged against them."


In a stinging dissent, Judge Madeline Singas wrote that the majority was "whitewashing the facts to conform to a he-said/she-said narrative," and said the Court of Appeals was continuing 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"The majority's determination perpetuates outdated notions of sexual violence and allows predators to escape accountability," Singas wrote.

Weinstein, 72, has been serving a 23-year sentence in a New York prison following his conviction on charges of criminal sex act for forcibly performing oral sex on a TV and film production assistant in 2006 and 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 was acquitted in Los Angeles on charges involving one of the women who testified in New York.

Weinstein 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 Harvey Weinstein 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."

"Courts routinely admit evidence of other uncharged acts where they assist juries in understanding issues concerning the intent, modus operandi or scheme of the defendant. The jury was instructed on the relevance of this testimony and overturning the verdict is tragic in that it will require the victims to endure yet another trial," Wigdor said in a statement.

[LegionareX]

I'm not surprised by this decision. I expected something like that. Although I thought they would throw out the conviction and order a new trial, as this can happen, as shown on this law firm's site. But to overturn the decision, that's just a shame.

[kerorokatak]

The decision to overturn Harvey Weinstein's rape conviction is stirring up a lot of debate. While some see it as correcting judicial errors, others are concerned it could discourage victims from coming forward. It's a complex issue, but it's important to remember that the legal system is designed to ensure fair trials, even when the outcomes are difficult to accept.

[Andrew NDB]

Originally Posted by kerorokatak

others are concerned it could discourage victims from coming forward.

Others as in morons. If you're victimized in a crime, report it right away! Period. Then there can be an investigation and due process. There can't be due process if there isn't any... process. And no, you don't get to have "believe all women" instead.

[Leo656]

Originally Posted by Andrew NDB

Others as in morons. If you're victimized in a crime, report it right away! Period. Then there can be an investigation and due process. There can't be due process if there isn't any... process. And no, you don't get to have "believe all women" instead.

Saying dumb sh*t like that is what proves you as the moron. You have no idea at all about how real life works, and you illustrate that often, but this is Top Tier stupid.

Nearly 100% of the women I know personally have been sexually assaulted, whether it be "just" inappropriate touching or full-blown rape. Cousins. Aunts. My sister. My niece. My wife. My Mother.

So let's just say that I'm an "expert observer" on this particular subject. And you're spectacularly full of sh*t. Things do not work as you've suggested. They never have, and likely never will.

Some of the women I know did report their assault, some didn't. The only consistency is that in 0% of situations where there was a report did a single assailant spend even one minute in police custody. Most were never even questioned. What DID happen, though, in 100% of cases, was the woman - the victim - was subsequently placed in a position of guilt by the person or people she reported it to, be it their boss or the police or even their "family".

"Are you sure you didn't just say Yes and then regret it later?"
"I mean... What were you wearing?"
"What did you say before that happened? You must have given him a reason, people don't just DO that!"

Always Their Fault. Every time. Not the scumbag who couldn't keep his zipper up, not the idiot whose Dad never taught him not to grab someone's tits without asking first, not the piece of sh*t who drugs someone's drink, no, those people are NEVER to blame. The dumb bitch just shouldn't have been there, or she should have worn pants, or she should have done (or shouldn't have done) SOME thing. That's what the cops say. That's what the bosses say. That's what HR says. That's what EVERYONE says when a woman reports an assault.

WHICH IS WHY MOST OF THEM DON'T BOTHER. Get this through your f*cking head.

If you KNOW, for a FACT, that no action will be taken against the person who assaulted you, and as a Bonus, YOU are going to be blamed for it instead... You're not going to say anything. There's no POINT. Some of the women I know endured MULTIPLE assaults, but only ever reported the first one. After that, they knew better. "It was like being raped all over again. I don't need that sh*t."

Sh*t like that is why my niece started cutting herself as a teen. Raped by a "friend", told someone, nothing happens to the boy because "he has a bright future, and after all, Boys Will Be Boys... Better you just forget about it and move on with your life. These Things Happen." I can understand how taking a knife to your wrist in the dark becomes an attractive scenario after that.

Society gaslights women so much about "deserving it" that my niece now believes, 100%, that she did in fact deserve it... By not going to church enough. "I wasn't honoring God in my life and that's why I needed to be punished. Nothing happened to the guy because he didn't do anything wrong, it was God's will and it was supposed to happen." And that makes me want to f*cking puke, the fact that she thinks that way now.

But that's what happens when you're told something long enough, from enough people. You believe it even if it's nonsense.

People with your exact attitude are what enables a society and culture that drives women to buy into such warped thinking. That exact same lack of empathy, that same exact judgmental, self-righteous, one-size-fits-all "solution" for a problem that is far less black and white than you pretend.

In Real Life, women who are molested by a co-worker are fired for reporting it to the boss (this happened to my wife, who was an UNDERAGE teen at the time, no less). In Real Life, little girls who are violated by a relative are told to keep quiet about it so as "not to hurt the reputation of the family." In Real Life, students who were raped by a classmate are told to keep it quiet "to protect the reputation of the school". And in Real Life, women who go to the cops are told, point f*cking blank, that nothing is going to happen. "It's your word against his, and he's going to say you asked for it. We can do a rape kit, but it most likely won't ever be tested. It's pretty impossible to ever convict for this kinda thing. You're gonna spend a lot of time in court over it, they're gonna drag it out and try and prove you led him on. Do you REALLY want to go through all that? Because what's gonna happen is, he might pay a fine and the judge will say 'Stay away from each other', and that's it. He won't go to jail, that almost never happens. So again... Do you REALLY want to push this.....?"

Some cops are just being honest about the likely outcome. Some just don't want the extra paperwork. Many cops are rapists themselves, in which case it's obvious why they wouldn't want to push the issue. Regardless, the message itself is always the same: "You CAN pursue this...... But it isn't going to go well for you."

The women in my family who never reported their assault, used the ones who did as the reason Why Not. "Nobody cares when it happened to (____), I'm not dealing with that sh*t." So instead they just bury the trauma under drugs and alcohol because at least that's an outcome they can control to any degree at all. Find ANY woman who's an addict, and 9 out of 10 times there's an "I was raped and nobody believed me" story at the root of it all. Seen it a thousand times.

Like a lot of dumb sh*t you say, your sentiment makes sense on a purely surface level. "Herp derp If they don't report it then nobody can do nuffin' hurr durr...." And also like said Other Dumb ****, it falls apart under even the slightest bit of Real Life Circumstance. Nobody does anything ANY goddamn way whether it's reported or not. That's Fact, not Fiction. Sometimes it actually makes things worse. Been there, seen that.

I hear of these things so often and so thoroughly because I'm the proverbial "Only one who even gives a sh*t" most of the time, whereas you're the kind of asshole they bitch to me about having no empathy or being too thick to understand what they're going through. "He just said I was stupid for not calling the cops and then told me I shouldn't have worn a skirt!" That's you. There's a lot of Yous out there. Mostly divorced, go figure. I'm sure it's a coincidence. Chicks love guys who tell them how they're "supposed" to deal with trauma, or that said trauma is their own fault, or never even happened. It's definitely not symptomatic of a much deeper-rooted and thinly-veiled issue guys have against women in general, or anything. Never ever.

You speak often and with firm declarative confidence about things you know f*ck-all about.

On behalf of my mother, my niece, my wife and the rest of the women in my Friends and Family circle: Stop F*cking Doing That.

Tens of thousands of several years-old, untested rape kits sitting in police station freezers across America all say that you're the moron. Facts don't care about your feelings.

[Mayhem]

I was going to post something, but Leo has basically dialled up to 12 the sentiments I was going to proffer, so… this, exactly.