Harvey Weinstein appeals rape conviction
Lawyers for film producer Harvey Weinstein on Monday filed an appeal of his conviction for rape and another sex crime.
Weinstein, 69, was convicted in February 2020 after a trial
in Manhattan Supreme Court.
He is serving a 23-year prison sentence in the case.
His lawyers in a court filing laid out seven grounds for
overturning the conviction of the producers of films such as “Pulp Fiction,”
“Shakespeare in Love,” and “Gangs of New York.”
They include the claim that Weinstein was denied his right
to be tried by an impartial jury when the trial judge denied his challenge to
bar a prospective juror who had written an autobiographical book about “the
predations of older men against younger women, and who lied about the substance
of the book during” jury selection.
Lawyers also argued that Weinstein was denied his right to a
fair trial because defense experts were barred from testifying on certain
matters, and for getting “a sentence that was harsh and excessive.”
“We have filed a 166-page brief, outlining several serious
mistakes made during the course of the trial,” Weinstein’s lawyer Arthur Aidala
said in a statement.
“We are confident that the Appellate Division will find
these issues serious enough to require a reversal of the conviction.”
Jurors convicted Weinstein committing a first-degree
criminal sexual act by forcibly performing oral sex on production assistant
Mimi Haleyi in 2006. He also was found guilty of third-degree rape for
attacking aspiring actress Jessica Mann in a Manhattan hotel room in 2013.
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