12 March 2020 - Harvey Weinstein sentenced to 23 years in prison
Harvey Weinstein sentenced to 23 years in prison on rape conviction
Lauren Aratani and Ed Pilkington (The Guardian, 11/03/2020)
Harvey Weinstein, the titan of Hollywood turned convicted rapist, has been sentenced to 23 years in prison in New York.
The fallen mogul was handed down his punishment by Judge James Burke at the New York supreme court having been convicted of two counts of sexual assault. The judge imposed 20 years for a first-degree criminal sex act for forcing oral sex on a production assistant, Miriam Haley, in 2006.
He also imposed a three-year sentence for third-degree rape of a woman whom the Guardian is not naming because her wishes over identification are not clear.
Harvey Weinstein’s Stunning Downfall: 23 Years in Prison
Jan Ransom (The New York Times, 11/03/2020)
Harvey Weinstein, the movie producer who dominated Hollywood for decades, was sentenced on Wednesday to 23 years in prison for sex crimes, as the six women who had testified against him watched from the courtroom’s front row, holding one another, some in tears.
The long sentence meant that Mr. Weinstein, who is 67 and in poor health, could very well spend the rest of his life in prison.
Minutes before, Mr. Weinstein, who was sitting in a wheelchair, had said that he was remorseful but also “totally confused” about what had happened to him. He likened his experience to that of Hollywood figures blacklisted during the scare over communism in the 1950s.
Harvey Weinstein Sentenced to 23 Years on Rape, Sex Assault
Melissa Chan (Time, 11/03/2020)
As his accusers looked on, Harvey Weinstein was sentenced to 23 years in prison for his conviction on sexual assault and third-degree rape—far longer than the five years requested by his defense lawyer, who called it a “de-facto life sentence.”
Before the 67-year-old former movie mogul was sentenced, he made a brief statement, speaking slowly and quietly from his seat as he said he was trying to be a better person. “I really feel remorse for this situation,” he said. “I feel it deeply in my heart.” But as he has in the past, Weinstein, who turns 68 on March 19, insisted that he never thought his past actions were coercive and believed he had a “serious friendship” with each of the two women whose accusations led to his convictions.
Harvey Weinstein Has Finally Been Sentenced to Prison
Christina Cauterucci (Slate, 11/03/2020)
Harvey Weinstein was sentenced to 23 years in a New York state prison, bringing to a close a monthslong trial that saw six women testify to the former movie producer’s pattern of sexual assaults.
This sentence is at the upper end of the range Weinstein was facing—the minimum was five years and the maximum was 29 years in prison for the two felony convictions a jury handed down on Feb. 24. If the jury had found him guilty of the two more severe predatory sexual assault charges prosecutors brought against him, he could have received a life sentence. Instead, jury members rejected those charges—and, implicitly, Annabella Sciorra’s rape accusation—leaving Justice James A. Burke with a lower range of sentencing options.