Harvey Weinstein To Present Before Court On May 1

The New York State Supreme Court overturned Harvey Weinstein's conviction for sexual assault and rape in 2020, ordering the reopening of the high-profile case that helped fuel #MeToo and highlighted the difficulty of bringing powerful men to justice. The court has now ordered the filmmaker to present before the court on May 1.

The allegations were leveled by actress Ashley Judd, who called the court's latest decision "an institutional betrayal."

The Manhattan District Attorney's office said it plans to retry the disgraced mogul. In a bitter 4-3 decision, the appeals court ruled that the trial judge erred in instructing women to testify that Weinstein sexually assaulted them, despite the fact that their allegations were not included in the charges.

The appeals court also said that the trial judge added to the error by allowing prosecutors to cross-examine him on a range of "abominable conduct," including bullying and bouts of anger toward co-workers.

According to the majority, the ruling "influenced" Weinstein's decision to not testify in his defense, which "distorted the facts of the case and called into question the credibility of the parties." The remedy for these "gross errors" was a new trial, the majority said. In February 2020, a jury in Manhattan found Weinstein guilty of sexually assaulting his former production assistant, Miriam Haley, in 2006 and of raping a young aspiring actress, Jessica Mann, in 2013.

He is currently serving a sentence of 23 years to life in a federal penitentiary in upstate New York.