Harvey Weinstein Given 16 Years of Jail Term After Rape Conviction, Read on

Home LeisureHarvey Weinstein Given 16 Years of Jail Term After Rape Conviction, Read on

Disgraced producer Harvey Weinstein has been sentenced to 16 years, successfully making certain the previous Hollywood mogul and convicted rapist will spend the remainder of his life behind bars.

Published: February 24, 2023 12:21 PM IST

By IANS

Harvey Weinstein Given 16 Years of Jail Term After Rape Conviction, Read on

Harvey Weinstein Rape Case: Disgraced producer Harvey Weinstein has been sentenced to 16 years, successfully making certain the previous Hollywood mogul and convicted rapist will spend the remainder of his life behind bars.

Weinstein’s sentencing was held in downtown Los Angeles on Thursday morning, practically two months after his Los Angeles trial concluded with a jury convicting him on three counts of rape and sexual assault, stories Variety.

Weinstein is already serving a 23-year sentence in New York, after being convicted of rape and sexual assault in that jurisdiction in his 2020 legal trial.

On Thursday, the decide ordered Weinstein to serve his L.A. sentence consecutively after New York. Before he was sentenced, Weinstein addressed the court docket, making one ultimate plea to Judge Lisa B. Lench. “I maintain that I’m innocent,” Weinstein stated. “This is about money and coming after me,” Weinstein stated. “Please don’t sentence me to life in prison. I don’t deserve it. There are so many things wrong with this case. There is no evidence. This is a setup. I beg your mercy.”

Weinstein’s defence, led by Mark Werksman and Alan Jackson, requested the decide to condemn him to a few years per cost, urging her to look to the person he was “before he became accused as a sexual predator,” and saying that he has “become a caricature because of the #MeToo movement.”

His lawyer famous that Weinstein has medical points and is a father. “He’s a 70-year-old man in bad health,” Werksman stated.

“He lived a full, rich, and productive life that included being a father to five children. He has become to his children the disembodied voice on the telephone.”

Werksman hailed Weinstein’s work within the leisure business, urging the decide to recognise his accomplishments.

After Weinstein and his attorneys spoke, the decide sentenced Weinstein to 16 years for the three prices on which the jury discovered him responsible.

“These are not easy decisions to make, but this is my decision,” Lench stated.

All three prices on which Weinstein had been convicted had been primarily based on the counts referring to Jane Doe #1, a European mannequin who testified she was raped by Weinstein at Mr C Hotel after the L.A. Italia Film Festival in 2013.

Joe Doe #1 appeared in court docket, alongside her daughter, to ship an emotional sufferer affect assertion, crying all through as she spoke at a podium.

“It is extremely difficult for me to stand here, ten years later, as the effects of this rape are still raw, and difficult to discuss. I have been carrying this weight, this trauma, this irrational belief that it was my fault for years,” she stated, addressing the decide.

“His selfish, disgusting actions have greatly impacted me and my life. What he did to me was horrible.”

When Weinstein spoke, Jane Doe #1 was audibly crying, and her tears had been heard over his assertion. Weinstein instructed the decide that Jane Doe #1 lied about all the rape and maintained that he by no means sexually assaulted her, and even got here involved along with her.

Weinstein’s workforce has targeted intently on Jane Doe #1, utilizing her as their argument to request a brand new trial with a brand new jury, which the decide shot down on Thursday morning, forward of the sentencing. Jane Doe #1 will doubtless be the point of interest of their enchantment.

Weinstein’s attorneys have argued that the court docket wrongly precluded them from introducing related proof and argument, notably centring round Jane Doe #1. Before the sentencing, Jackson delivered a prolonged argument as to why Weinstein must be granted a brand new trial, alleging that the decide “allowed perjury on the stand” from Jane Doe #1.

He stated the protection was “sandbagged by a lie told on the stand,” and claimed the jury “got sucked into the lies of Jane Doe #1.”

Two jurors had been seated within the gallery on Thursday, which Weinstein referenced to the decide as assist for him. Weinstein’s attorneys stated the jury “would never have voted to convict if they knew the truth.” Lead prosecutor, deputy D.A. Paul Thompson, replied again at Weinstein’s attorneys, exclaiming: “It is certainly not the defence’s job to go hunt down jurors.”

Before denying Weinstein’s movement for a brand new trial, the decide stated that speculating on whether or not jurors might need modified their verdict, primarily based on proof that wasn’t submitted into the case was “speculative” and never “appropriate.”

Shortly after court docket was dismissed on Thursday afternoon, the 2 jurors current spoke to reporters within the hallway. They stated that they had been in communication with the defence, and had been fascinated by coming to Weinstein’s sentencing to assemble extra info.

“I was never here to advocate,” a juror named Michael instructed Variety. “There is so much we don’t know in this case. The more info, the better because it helps flesh it out.” A juror named Jay stated: “We weren’t on anybody’s side,” and expressed that even with extra proof, he’s not sure whether or not he would have modified his conviction.

“I don’t know if he would have been acquitted. I don’t even know if it’s true that she lied,” Jay stated. “I don’t feel bad,” he stated of Weinstein. “We knew he was going to get sentenced.”

Thursday’s sentencing all however ensures that Weinstein, who will flip 71 subsequent month, will spend the rest of his life in jail, marking a shocking downfall for the the Oscar winner who reigned over Hollywood and was as soon as probably the most highly effective people within the leisure business.

His workforce, nonetheless, continues to be preventing for Weinstein’s freedom. Werksman and Jackson stated on Thursday that they are going to be interesting the Los Angeles conviction. In New York, the Court of Appeals, which is the very best court docket within the state, agreed to listen to Weinstein’s enchantment of his 2020 intercourse crimes conviction.

In his L.A. trial, which ran from October via December 2022, prosecutors argued that Weinstein was a predator who used his energy to lure and assault ladies in lodge rooms underneath the guise of a enterprise assembly or audition, whereas his defence argued that the ladies willingly engaged in “transactional sex” as a result of Weinstein was so influential within the leisure business.

Weinstein initially confronted 11 prices in L.A., however 4 prices, all referring to Jane Doe #5, had been dismissed within the midst of the trial. The jury delivered a cut up verdict, convicting him on the three counts referring to Jane Doe #1 however acquitting him of the sexual battery of a therapeutic massage therapist, recognized as Jane Doe #3. They couldn’t attain a unanimous verdict on the fees involving two different accusers, aspiring actor and screenwriter Lauren Young, often known as Jane Doe #2 within the case, and the First Partner of California, Jennifer Siebel Newsom, who was Jane Doe #4. The decide declared a mistrial on these three prices.

Weinstein has been accused by greater than 100 ladies who’ve publicly come ahead with allegations of sexual assault, abuse and harassment which have spanned many years. His fall was the fuse the ignited #MeToo in 2017, and the story the survivors coming ahead even impressed a significant studio movie,” she stated.

Published Date: February 24, 2023 12:21 PM IST