The New York Court of Appeals on Thursday overturned the sex crimes conviction against Harvey Weinstein, a powerful Jewish Hollywood producer.
According to CNN, the vote in the court was 4-3.
“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,” the ruling, written by Judge Jenny Rivera, states.
“The court compounded that error when it ruled that defendant, who had no criminal history, could be cross examined about those allegations as well as numerous allegations of misconduct that portrayed defendant in a highly prejudicial light. The synergistic effect of these errors was not harmless.”
Weinstein, 72, is being held at Mohawk Correctional Facility in Rome, New York. He was sentenced last year in Los Angeles to 16 years in prison for charges of rape and sexual assault. He has in the past been sentenced to first-degree sexual crimes, third-degree rape, and was accused by multiple women as the prosecution attempted to establish evidence that he had a pattern of offenses.
Weinstein was heavily targeted by the #MeToo movement, and his conviction was considered one of the premier moments of the movement’s societal impact.