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By Giulia Schaub, Blog Editor
After months of pretrial squabbling, a tumultuous voir dire process, and emotional witness testimonies, Harvey Weinstein was convicted of two felony sex crimes on February 24, 2020 [1] and sentenced to 23 years in prison on March 11, 2020. [2] Weinstein faced five charges in total: two counts of predatory sexual assault, one count of rape in the first degree, one count of rape in the third degree, and one count of a criminal sexual assault in the first degree. [3] A jury of seven men and five women returned a guilty verdict for rape in the third degree and criminal sexual assault in the first degree. [4] The charges rested on the accusations of two women: Miriam Haley, a production assistant who accused Weinstein of forcing her to perform oral sex on him in 2006, and Jessica Mann, a former actress who said that Weinstein had raped her 2013. [5]
Weinstein has become the archvillain of the #MeToo movement since the New York Times published reports exposing decades of sexual abuse in 2017. [6] Since the initial report, over 100 women have come forward with accusations against the disgraced producer. [7] The New York Times report acted as the catalyst for the “Weinstein effect” that rippled through industries, corporations, universities, government branches, and many more institutions across the world. [8] Women and men were emboldened and inspired to come forward with their stories of abuse, harassment, and misconduct at the hands of powerful men than they have kept hidden, some for years at a time, fearing that their careers and reputations would be in jeopardy. [9]
Just as the #MeToo movement spread across the internet after the New York Times published the reports, the dramatic events of Weinstein’s trial and his imprisonment have dominated headlines for months. Firstly, the prosecution and Weinstein’s defense team squabbled for two weeks over voir dire. [10] Because most of Weinstein’s victims are white women, his defense team worked diligently to eliminate this demographic from the jury. Weinstein’s defense team routinely researched and rejected white women who themselves have been sexually assaulted, knew someone who had been sexually assaulted, who had written books or articles involving women’s issues, who had posted photos online of themselves at women’s marches, and one particularly young white women who was not alive when these crimes took place and thus would not understand that “the rules of dating were different” back then. [11] The ultimate demographic breakdown of the jury was as follows: six white men, a black man, two white women, two black women, and a Latina woman. [12]
This trial was unusual from the start because it is one of the few trials involving sexual crimes in which the prosecution had no physical evidence against the defendant. [13] The jury heard only the testimony of Weinstein’s victims and their friends, families, and coworkers as well as a few of Weinstein’s colleagues, to assess when deliberating his guilt. [14] Both Hayley and Mann testified, along with four other victims: actress Annabella Sciorra, costume designer Dawn Dunning, actress and writer Lauren Young, and model Tarale Wulff. [15] Their testimonies were graphic and heart-wrenching, often lasting hours at a time and leaving many in the courtroom in tears. [16] Weinstein’s attorneys grilled the witnesses with questions that generally suggested that any encounters between the accusers and Weinstein were consensual. [17] Courtroom spectators noted that their unwavering fervency was particularly exhausting and distressing to the accusers, so much so that it drove Mann to have a panic attack on the stand and resulted in adjournment for the day after her four-hour testimony. [18]
Weinstein’s lead defense attorney, Donna Rotunno, received extensive media attention after she expressed her disappointment in women refusing to take responsibility for their actions in an interview with Insider Magazine. [19] “Everybody says, ‘Oh, are you telling women that if they go to hotel rooms they deserve to be raped?’ No,” she told the magazine. [20] Rather, she said “that after having drinks and being at a party and sitting in a bar with somebody and going to their hotel at midnight, don’t be so ridiculous as to say, ‘I thought I was going to see a script.’ At some point, where is the responsibility?” [21] Weinstein chose Rotunno specifically because he wanted a woman to defend him for these crimes. [22] Rotunno also has built quite a tenure during her 15-year career: of the 40 defendants she has represented, she has only failed to acquit one (before representing Weinstein). [23]
Media coverage of Weinstein is unlikely to cease any time soon. News sources falsely reported Weinstein tested positive for COVID-19 while imprisoned at Wende Correctional Center before being transferred to Rikers Island; he had actually tested negative at Rikers. [24] Last month, reports surfaced that detailed the ways Jeffery Epstein would use his connections to Weinstein to entice his victims, until Weinstein allegedly abused one of Epstein’s “favorite girls,” which led to the dissolution of their friendship. [25] Weinstein now faces four felony counts of sexual assault in Los Angeles County; the formal charges for these crimes were announced by the L.A. District Attorney’s Office on the same day that his New York trial began. [26]
[1] https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/24/nyregion/harvey-weinstein-trial-rape-verdict.html
[2] https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/11/nyregion/harvey-weinstein-sentencing.html
[3] Id.
[4] https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/celebrities/2020/02/17/harvey-weinstein-jury-set-begin-deliberations-what-know/4761244002/
[5] https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/02/nyregion/weinstein-verdict-jury.html?auth=login-email&login=email
[6] https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/from-aggressive-overtures-to-sexual-assault-harvey-weinsteins-accusers-tell-their-stories
[7] https://www.cnn.com/2020/01/23/us/witnesses-harvey-weinstein-trial/index.html
[8] https://www.cbsnews.com/news/harvey-weinstein-effect-goes-global-powerful-men-confronted/
[9] Id.
[10] https://www.reuters.com/article/us-people-harvey-weinstein-jury-business/harvey-weinstein-jury-selection-bias-big-data-and-likes-idUSKBN1ZF18C
[11] https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/17/nyregion/harvey-weinstein-trial-jury.html
[12] https://www.thecut.com/2020/01/harvey-weinsteins-jury-is-mostly-white-men.html
[13] https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/26/nyregion/harvey-weinstein-trial-accusers-testimony.html
[14] https://www.cnn.com/2020/02/06/us/harvey-weinstein-trial-rest/index.html
[15]https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/26/nyregion/harvey-weinstein-trial-accusers-testimony.html
[16] Id.
[17] https://www.npr.org/2020/02/11/804584532/that-never-happened-the-key-moments-during-harvey-weinstein-s-defense
[18] https://www.cnn.com/2020/02/03/us/harvey-weinstein-trial-mann/index.html
[19] https://www.insider.com/donna-rotunno-harvey-weinstein-lawyer-profile-feminism-2020-2
[20] Id.
[21] Id.
[22] Id.
[23] Id.
[24] https://newyork.cbslocal.com/2020/04/02/spokesman-says-harvey-weinstein-never-tested-positive-for-coronavirus/
[25] https://pagesix.com/2020/03/30/jeffrey-epstein-distanced-from-weinstein-after-mogul-tried-to-abuse-his-favorite-girl/
[26] https://www.npr.org/2020/01/22/798222176/the-harvey-weinstein-trial-a-brief-timeline-of-how-we-got-here
