NEW YORK (NewsNation) — While advocacy groups on Thursday criticized the decision by New York’s highest court to overturn Harvey Weinstein’s 2020 rape conviction, the disgraced film producer’s attorney lauded the decision.
“Today’s legal ruling is a great day for America,” said defense attorney Arthur Aidala.
The state Court of Appeals ruling reopens a painful chapter in America’s reckoning with sexual misconduct by powerful figures — an era that began in 2017 with a flood of allegations against Weinstein. His accusers could again be forced to retell their stories on the witness stand.
“This ruling does not diminish the validity of our experiences or our truth; it’s merely a setback. The man found guilty continues to serve time in a California prison,” a statement from the Silence Breakers read in part.
Weinstein Attorney Arthur Aidala will join “Banfield” on Thursday at 10/9 CT on NewsNation.
Aidala, however, painted his client as a victim who was unfairly tried, shunned from the entertainment industry and forced to endure a prison sentence during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Think about where we were four years ago,” said Aidala. “We were in lockdown with COVID. Think about how much life has passed, and he’s missed all of it — and he’s got little kids.”
The court’s majority said, “It is an abuse of judicial discretion to permit untested allegations of nothing more than bad behavior that destroys a defendant’s character but sheds no light on their credibility as related to the criminal charges lodged against them.”
In a stinging dissent, Judge Madeline Singas wrote that the majority was “whitewashing the facts to conform to a he-said/she-said narrative,” and said the Court of Appeals was continuing a “disturbing trend of overturning juries’ guilty verdicts in cases involving sexual violence.”
“The majority’s determination perpetuates outdated notions of sexual violence and allows predators to escape accountability,” Singas wrote.
Weinstein, 72, has been serving a 23-year sentence in an upstate New York prison following his conviction on charges of criminal sex act for forcibly performing oral sex on a TV and film production assistant in 2006 and rape in the third degree for an attack on an aspiring actress in 2013.
He is not expected to be freed immediately, as he also faces a separate 16-year prison term in California after being convicted there last year for the 2013 rape of an actress at a Los Angeles hotel.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, whose predecessor Cyrus Vance brought the New York case, will decide whether to retry Weinstein.
“We will do everything in our power to retry this case, and remain steadfast in our commitment to survivors of sexual assault,” Emily Tuttle, a spokesperson for Bragg, told Reuters in an email.
Arthur Aidala, a lawyer for Weinstein, called the decision a victory for his client and any American charged with a crime, “no matter how popular or unpopular they are.”
Weinstein has denied having non-consensual sexual encounters with anyone.
Weinstein was convicted in February 2020 in Manhattan of sexually assaulting former production assistant Miriam Haley in 2006, and raping aspiring actress Jessica Mann in 2013.
The charges on which he was convicted were first-degree sexual assault and third-degree rape. Jurors acquitted him on other charges.
Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.