Harvey Weinstein enters the courthouse on July 11, 2019 in New York City.
Stephanie Keith | Getty Images
Lawyers for film producer Harvey Weinstein on Monday filed an appeal on his conviction for rape and another sex crime.
Weinstein, 69, was convicted in February 2020 after a trial in the Manhattan Supreme Court.
He is serving a 23-year prison sentence in the case, which was tried two years after explosive allegations of sexual misconduct by Weinstein ignited the #MeToo movement that continues to derail the careers of other high-profile men.
His lawyers in a court case have pleaded guilty to seven counts of overthrowing the filmmaker’s convictions such as ‘Pulp Fiction’, ‘Shakespeare in Love’ and ‘Gangs of New York’.
This includes the allegation that Weinstein was denied his right to be tried by an impartial jury when the trial judge denied his challenge to a prospective juror who wrote an autobiographical book on “the predations of older men against younger women. , and who lied about the contents of the book during the jury selection.
Lawyers also argued that Weinstein was denied his right to a fair trial because defense attorneys were barred from testifying on certain matters, and that he received “a punitive and excessive sentence.”
The appeal is being filed in the appeals division of the Manhattan High Court.
“We have submitted a 166-page statement outlining some serious flaws in the course of the trial,” Barry Kamins, Weinstein’s appeal attorney, told CNBC in a statement.
“We are confident that the appeals department will take these issues seriously enough to reverse the conviction,” Kamins said.
Jurors convicted Weinstein of committing a first-degree criminal act by forcibly performing oral sex with production assistant Mimi Haleyi in 2006. He was also convicted of third-degree rape for assaulting a prospective actress Jessica Mann in a hotel room in Manhattan in 2013.
Another Weinstein lawyer, Arthur Aidala, said: “With a year behind us and emotions subsiding, the transcript of the case we have always believed confirms: that Mr. Weinstein did not receive a fair trial. ‘
“We would argue that the trial judge violated the accepted and fundamental principles of New York law and violated the constitutional rights of Mr. Weinstein. We have the utmost confidence that the appellate division will correct these errors and present this case before another judge. will return, “Aidala said.
– CNBC’s Kevin Breuninger contributed to this article.
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