Harvey Weinstein Rape Case: Judge Bars Additional Victims From Speaking at Sentencing

Home LeisureHarvey Weinstein Rape Case: Judge Bars Additional Victims From Speaking at Sentencing

A choose dominated on Thursday that no extra victims past the one girl, whose testimony was the premise for Harvey Weinstein’s conviction, will be capable of give sufferer impression statements at sentencing.

Harvey Weinstein Rape Case: Judge Bars Additional Victims From Speaking at Sentencing

Harvey Weinstein Rape Case: A choose dominated on Thursday that no extra victims past the one girl, whose testimony was the premise for Harvey Weinstein’s conviction, will be capable of give sufferer impression statements at Weinstein’s sentencing subsequent week. The ruling comes amid calls from legal professional Gloria Allred to permit extra victims to talk on the sentencing, which she says is the “right of a victim.” Allred represented three ladies in Weinstein’s Los Angeles trial, and has argued that each one ladies concerned within the case, whatever the verdict, ought to be capable of communicate on the sentencing to let their voice be heard and supply related data for the court docket to contemplate.

At the Thursday listening to, prosecutors Paul Thompson and Marlene Martinez requested the choose to listen to from Allred in court docket, reviews ‘Variety’. Weinstein was discovered responsible on three counts of rape and sexual assault final December, after a two-month trial in Los Angeles. The three fees on which he was convicted all got here from Jane Doe #1, a European mannequin who mentioned Weinstein raped her in 2013 throughout a movie pageant in L.A.

The trial resulted in a blended verdict with the jury acquitting Weinstein on one rely pertaining to Jane Doe #3, and never reaching a unanimous verdict on three extra fees from Jane Doe #2 and Jane Doe #4. Aside from the 4 charged victims, 4 extra victims took the stand in the course of the trial as “prior bad acts” witnesses, in an effort to set up a sample of Weinstein’s behaviour. “I’m not going to make this an open forum on Mr. Weinstein’s conduct,” Judge Lisa B. Lench mentioned on Thursday, re-confirming that solely Jane Doe #1 may make a sufferer impression assertion at subsequent week’s sentencing.

“I don’t think it’s appropriate for the court to consider those alleged crimes,” Judge Lench mentioned, stating that the opposite ladies who testified within the trial aren’t “germane to the issues” that will probably be thought-about on the sentencing. “I heard the trial,” she mentioned. “I know the issues.” Weinstein was current at listening to, and was wheeled into the courtroom sporting a jail jumpsuit, which mentioned “LA County Jail XL” on the again. He sat subsequent to his attorneys, Alan Jackson and Mark Werksman. Before the listening to began, Weinstein was laughing with an enormous smile as he was overheard chatting along with his attorneys about soccer.

Prior to the choose’s ruling on Thursday, Allred submitted authorized briefs to the court docket to place the matter on the file, and Weinstein’s defence submitted an opposition. Immediately after the listening to on Thursday, Allred advised the media that she will probably be disputing the court docket’s ruling, in hopes of reversing the choice. “I feel very strongly about victim’s rights,” Allred mentioned on the courthouse. “I believe that everything that they would say would be relevant to the issue of the sentence that Mr. Weinstein should receive.”

“If they are not permitted,” Allred continued, “It could result in an unjust sentence. That is our concern – so that the court should be able to hear the entirety of the alleged scope of the defendant’s conduct in order to protect the people of California and elsewhere to adequately punish the defendant and to deter such conduct in the future, whether or not there is ever a conviction of a crime.” Weinstein’s defence objected on Thursday to permitting extra ladies to supply sufferer impression statements, arguing that the mere presence of them on the sentencing would high quality them as “victims,” after jurors failed to succeed in a verdict pertaining to their allegations offered within the trial.

Werksman mentioned that permitting extra ladies to supply sufferer impression statements can be “unduly prejudicial” for Weinstein, and that the sentencing ought to solely pertain to his conviction based mostly on Jane Doe #1. Weinstein’s defence additionally introduced up the opportunity of some fees being re-tried, stating that permitting ladies concerned with these fees to talk on the sentencing may “taint the jury pool and the public perception” that they’re certainly “victims where he is still presumed innocent.”

Weinstein will probably be sentenced on February 23. The former Hollywood mogul is already serving his 23-year sentence in New York after being discovered responsible in 2020, and the sentencing he faces in L.A. will successfully put him behind bars for all times. Last month, nevertheless, Weinstein filed his enchantment for his New York conviction, after the very best court docket within the state agreed to listen to his case.

Additionally, Weinstein’s L.A. defence crew is asking for a brand new trial, claiming that the jury was improperly instructed in the course of the trial and that proof and argument was withheld, which may have altered the jury’s deliberations. That matter may also be heard subsequent week in court docket, the identical day as Weinstein’s sentencing.

Except for the heading, the content material is attributed to IANS.

Published Date: February 17, 2023 6:57 PM IST