Harvey Weinstein’s conviction may not prove to be the seismic moment for sexual assault cases that so many people assume it will be
HARVEY WEINSTEIN is no longer an “alleged” rapist and his Zimmer frame can return to the props department. On February 24th a Manhattan jury convicted the former film producer of rape and of a criminal sex act, acquitting him of the most serious charges of predatory sexual assault. The man who inadvertently accelerated #MeToo is now in a New York hospital awaiting sentencing on March 11th. He faces between five and 29 years in prison.
Mr Weinstein’s lawyers need not worry about being out of work any time soon. Donna Rotunno, who says her client “took it like a man”, insists that he will appeal. There are grounds to do so, including the judge’s decision to allow extra witnesses to testify about previous “bad acts” and concern over whether Mr Weinstein could have a fair trial in a city at the heart of the #MeToo media storm.
It therefore seems unlikely that he will sit out his retirement comfortably. But perhaps the more salient question is how much this matters. Bennett Capers, a Brooklyn law professor, doubts there is a much wider significance. “Many will undoubtedly see this as possibly signalling a new era where prosecutors believe victims and pursue sexual assault cases, even against the powerful,” he says.
The Weinstein conviction is being presented as a watershed moment that will change the way police, prosecutors and juries deal with such cases. No longer will women who report rape late, or whose testimonies are incomplete or complicated, face scepticism, goes the theory. In fact, after an initial bump, reporting rates of sexual violence in America are back to being as low as they were before #MeToo started.
The next stop for the Weinstein media circus will probably be Los Angeles, the birthplace of celebrity justice. The local record of convicting celebrities is poor and scarred by the very public decision of a jury to acquit Mr Simpson of murdering his wife and her friend Ron Goldman. It will be tempting to fixate on whether the DA can do any better with Mr Weinstein.
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