Harvey Weinstein to face new trial after 2020 rape conviction is overturned

The Manhattan district attorney's office announced that it will request a new trial against former film producer Harvey Weinstein on sexual assault charges after his 23-year prison sentence imposed in 2020 for rape was overturned.

During a criminal court hearing, District Attorney Alvin Bragg reported on his team's plans Wednesday, and requested that Weinstein remain in pretrial detention, arguing that the case launched in 2018 "remains a strong [one]."

"We have every belief the defendant will be convicted again at trial," he stated.

Weinstein's lawyers opposed preventive detention, arguing the former producer's health problems and pointing out that he had already served time in prison and was acquitted of the most serious charges. However, the judge overseeing the case sent him to prison, scheduled a discovery hearing for May 29, and ruled that Weinstein's new trial would occur sometime after September 2.

It should be remembered that last week the New York Court of Appeals decided to annul Weinstein's conviction of criminal sexual act in the first degree and rape in the third degree in the high-profile trial in 2020 after determining that the trial judge allowed prosecutors to use statements that were not explicitly related to the former producer's charges and that the "remedy for these egregious errors is a new trial."

"We conclude that the trial court erroneously admitted testimony of uncharged, alleged prior sexual acts against persons other than the complainants of the underlying crimes because that testimony served no material non-propensity purpose," Judge Jenny Rivera reported.

However, this decision does not affect Weinstein's 2022 conviction on charges of rape and other sexual crimes in California, for which he was sentenced to 16 years in prison.

Weinstein also faces charges in London for two counts of indecent assault committed in 1996.