{"id":1127027,"date":"2021-12-17T00:43:39","date_gmt":"2021-12-17T05:43:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1127027"},"modified":"2021-12-17T00:43:41","modified_gmt":"2021-12-17T05:43:41","slug":"harvey-weinstein-could-go-free-as-appeals-court-casts-doubt-on-his-conviction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/harvey-weinstein-could-go-free-as-appeals-court-casts-doubt-on-his-conviction\/","title":{"rendered":"Harvey Weinstein Could Go Free, as Appeals Court Casts Doubt on His Conviction"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">26<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fharvey-weinstein-could-go-free-as-appeals-court-casts-doubt-on-his-conviction%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1127027&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/WeinsteinMasturbate.jpg\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" \/><\/div>\n<p class=\"subheading\">NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 A New York appeals court blasted Manhattan prosecutors Wednesday for filling out Harvey Weinstein\u2019s rape trial last year with what one judge deemed \u201cincredibly prejudicial testimony\u201d from women whose allegations weren\u2019t part of the criminal charges against him \u2014 a strategy that now has the potential to jeopardize the disgraced movie mogul\u2019s conviction.<\/p>\n<p>Members of a five-judge panel in the state\u2019s intermediate appeals court appeared incensed with Judge James Burke\u2019s decision to allow the witnesses and for another ruling that cleared the way for prosecutors to confront Weinstein with evidence about other misbehavior if he had testified.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"D-ROS-B1\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B1\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"gmxrevmore\" class=\"H\"><\/figure>\n<p>Several judges on the panel appeared open to considering reversing Weinstein\u2019s conviction and ordering a new trial. A decision isn\u2019t expected until January.<\/p>\n<p>Judge Sallie Manzanet-Daniels was particularly vocal, saying that prosecutors had piled on with \u201cincredibly prejudicial\u201d testimony from additional witnesses and that socking away details about Weinstein\u2019s behavior \u2014 in some cases boorish but not sexual \u2014 amounted to overkill.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLet\u2019s inflame the jury\u2019s heart by telling them that he beat up his brother during a meeting. I just I don\u2019t see how there is a balance there on that,\u201d Manzanet-Daniels said, challenging a lawyer from the Manhattan district attorney\u2019s office who implored the judges to uphold Weinstein\u2019s conviction.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B2\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<p>Weinstein, 69, was convicted in February 2020 of a criminal sex act for forcibly performing oral sex on a TV and film production assistant in 2006 and rape in the third degree for an attack on an aspiring actress in 2013. He was acquitted of first-degree rape and two counts of predatory sexual assault stemming from actor Annabella Sciorra\u2019s allegations of a mid-1990s rape.<\/p>\n<p>The verdict was a landmark in the #MeToo movement that was spawned by women coming forward with allegations against Weinstein. He maintains his innocence and contends that any sexual activity was consensual.<\/p>\n<p>Burke, the Manhattan judge who presided over Weinstein\u2019s trial, allowed prosecutors to bolster their case with testimony from three women who alleged Weinstein also violated them but whose claims did not lead to charges in the New York case.<\/p>\n<p>Rules on calling witnesses to testify about so-called \u201cprior bad acts\u201d vary by state and was an issue in Bill Cosby\u2019s successful appeal of his sexual assault conviction in Pennsylvania. New York\u2019s rules, shaped by a landmark decision in a 1901 poisoning case, are among the more restrictive.<\/p>\n<p>Weinstein\u2019s lawyers argued that extra testimony went beyond what\u2019s normally allowed \u2014 detailing motive, opportunity, intent or a common scheme or plan \u2014 and essentially put the ex-studio boss on trial for crimes he wasn\u2019t charged with and hadn\u2019t had an opportunity to defend himself against.<\/p>\n<p>Burke\u2019s ruling allowing prosecutors to use horror stories from Weinstein\u2019s past to attack his credibility worked to prevent him from taking the witness stand, Weinstein lawyer Barry Kamins told the appellate panel.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe jury was overwhelmed by such prejudicial, bad evidence,\u201d Kamins argued. \u201cThis was a trial of Harvey Weinstein\u2019s character. The people were making him out to be a bad person.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Kamins also challenged Burke\u2019s refusal to remove a juror who had written a novel involving predatory older men, as well as his decision to allow prosecutors to have an expert on victim behavior and rape myths testify while rejecting testimony on similar subjects from defense experts.<\/p>\n<p>Weinstein, sentenced to 23 years in state prison in New York, did not attend Wednesday\u2019s arguments. He was extradited to California earlier this year and is jailed there while awaiting trial on charges he assaulted five women in Los Angeles and Beverly Hills from 2004 to 2013.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 A New York appeals court blasted Manhattan prosecutors Wednesday for filling out Harvey Weinstein\u2019s rape trial last year with what one judge deemed \u201cincredibly prejudicial testimony\u201d &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1127027","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1127027","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1127027"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1127027\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1127027"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1127027"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1127027"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}