After Weinstein’s case was overturned, New York considers strengthening sex crime prosecutions
ALBANY, N.Y. — Lawmakers in New York want to change the legal standard Harvey Weinstein used to overturn his rape conviction, proposing a bill to strengthen sexual assault prosecutions after the disgraced movie mogul’s case was dismissed.
The state’s highest court late last month threw out Weinstein’s conviction in a ruling that said a judge improperly allowed women to testify about allegations that were not part of his criminal prosecution.
Now a group of state lawmakers is pushing a proposal to allow explicit evidence of prior sex crimes in sex crime cases, while also giving judges the discretion to block testimony if it would create “undue prejudice” against a suspect.
“In sexual assault cases, which typically rely on survivor testimony, this is essential and critical. It allows an offender’s pattern of conduct to be presented in court,” Assemblymember Amy Paulin, a Democrat who is sponsoring the bill, said Thursday at a news conference about the legislation in Manhattan.
New York allows such evidence to be used in some cases, such as to prove a motive, in a standard established by legal precedent. But Senate Deputy Leader Michael Gianaris, another sponsor, said the rule should be clarified in state law after the Weinstein decision.
The change would bring New York in line with similar standards adopted at the federal level and in more than a dozen states, Paulin said.
“Survivors of sexual assault who come forward are rarely the only victims of their abusers,” Tarale Wulff, a model who testified against Weinstein but was not part of the underlying criminal charges against him, said at the news conference.
“When there are multiple victims of sexual violence, their voices must be heard together and collectively,” she said.
Weinstein, 72, has denied the allegations in New York. He was accused of raping an aspiring actor in 2013 and sexually assaulting a production assistant in 2006. His conviction in 2020 was a key moment in the #MeToo movement, a reckoning with sexual misconduct in American society.
Prosecutors in New York want to try Weinstein again in September. He was also convicted of rape in California and sentenced to 16 years in prison. He is currently imprisoned in New York.
The bill has drawn early criticism from the Legal Aid Society. Amanda Jack, policy director at the group, said the proposal is too broad and “will promote the troubling assumption that suspects have a clear propensity to commit the crime at trial if they have committed a similar crime in the past.”