Harvey Weinstein Appeals Rape Conviction

Harvey Weinstein‘s legal team has filed an appeal of his conviction on rape and sexual assault charges, arguing that the judge made errors. The 69-year-old was convicted in February of 2020 in Manhattan and is serving a 23-year prison sentence in the case. Weinstein and his team want a new trial.

His team laid out seven grounds for overturning the conviction, including that he was denied the right to trial by an impartial jury as one juror wrote a novel dealing with sexual exploitation, that jurors heard claims of misconduct that were not subject to the charges he was facing and that defense experts were stopped from testifying on the subject of memory.

A lawyer for Weinstein, Arthur Aidala, said, “With a year behind us and emotions subsided, the transcript of the case confirms what we always believed: that Mr. Weinstein did not receive a fair trial.”

“We will argue that the trial judge disregarded well accepted and fundamental principles of New York law and violated Mr. Weinstein’s constitutional rights,” Aidala said. “We have the utmost confidence that the Appellate Division will correct these mistakes and send this case back before a different judge.”

“We will respond in our brief to the court,” said Danny Frost, a spokesman for the Manhattan District Attorney’s office.

Weinstein is awaiting extradition to L.A. to face 11 counts of abuse and rape that carry a maximum sentence of 140 years.