Harvey Weinstein’s rape conviction is overturned. Now what?

HARVEY WEINSTEIN, a former Hollywood mogul and public enemy number one of the , is a free man again—at least as far as New York’s top court is concerned. On April 25th Manhattan’s Court of Appeals ruled that Mr Weinstein did not receive a fair trial when he was convicted in 2020 of felony sex-crime charges and sentenced to 23 years in prison. He may face a retrial and also has a 16-year jail sentence to serve in California for rape, so will remain behind bars. But the symbolism of the decision—the biggest setback for #MeToo yet—is significant.Although the ruling came as a shock to the general public, to many in the legal profession it did not. In 2023 a YouGov poll found that 83% of Americans believed that Mr Weinstein was guilty of charges including rape and sexual assault, and only 5% thought him not guilty, “regardless of the verdict”. But while the court of public opinion has little doubt about the guilt of Mr Weinstein—who has been accused by over 100 women of acts ranging from harassment to rape—his criminal conviction in New York was always on shakier ground. As wrote at the time, the judge’s controversial decision to allow three witnesses, who were not part of the charges, to testify about previous “bad acts” . By allowing these extra accusers, argued Mr Weinstein’s lawyers in their appeal against his conviction, the judge had overwhelmed the trial with “excessive, random and highly dubious prior bad-act evidence”.