Harvey Weinstein “Cautiously Excited” After 2020 Rape Conviction Overturned, New Trial Order By NY Appeals Court – Update

deadline.com:

(Updated with statement from Weinstein spokesperson) New York’s highest court on Thursday overturned Harvey Weinstein’s 2020 conviction on felony sex crime charges, ordering a new trial.

However, that doesn’t mean the Pulp Fiction producer will be stepping out of prison any tine soon. In a 4-3 ruling, the New York Court of Appeals flipped Weinstein’s conviction, stating the judge in charge of the trial “erroneously admitted testimony of uncharged, alleged prior sexual acts against persons other than the complainants of the underlying crimes.” “Defendant was convicted by a jury for various sexual crimes against three named complainants and, on appeal, claims that he was judged, not on the conduct for which he was indicted, but on irrelevant, prejudicial, and untested allegations of prior bad acts,” Judge Jenny Rivera wrote in the Appeals Court ruling of the verdict against Weinstein and his subsequent 23-year sentence on March 11, 2020.

Weinstein was convicted on first-degree sexual assault and three years for third-degree rape, to be served consecutively. He was also ordered to register as a sex offender, a registration that likely will be removed based on the Appeals Court ruling this week. “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 because that testimony served no material non-propensity purpose,” Judge Rivera added for the Appeals Court majority of the trial overseen over four years ago by New York Supreme Court Judge James Burke. “The court compounded that error when it ruled that defendant, who had no criminal history, could be cross examined about those allegations as well as