Harvey Weinstein appeals NYC to overturn conviction, claims trial wasn’t ‘fair and impartial’

Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein filed an appeal at New York City coinciding with the Golden Globes 2023 Award ceremony.

Weinstein is awaiting sentencing on three counts of rape and sexual assault in Los Angeles. He filed an appeal over an earlier New York City case, with lawyers blaming his conviction on a “carnival atmosphere” around the trial, via Page Six.

Weinstein’s attorney, Arthur L. Aidala of Aidala, Bertuna & Kamins, told the outlet that Weinstein, who was sentenced to 23 years in 2002 for rape and sexual abuse in the New York hearing, is steadfast in his claims of innocence.

“The day I met Harvey in 2019 he told me ‘I was innocent,'” Aidala said. “Despite all the negative things that have happened from 2019 to today, the one thing that hasn’t been diminished is his powerful defence of himself and his proclamations of innocence. He has not given up.”

He added that the appeal is “a trial of the trial judge,” James Burke, and whether he “ruled fairly and accurately, whether he followed the law in his rulings about what could and couldn’t go into evidence.”

Furthermore, he shared that Weinstein was “actively involved in the appeal, in the drafting and approving and editing of it,” despite being imprisoned in L.A.

Aidala maintained that his client was “stripped of the presumption of innocence” and was subjected to a trail that was not quite “fair and impartial.”

The appeal claims that, An unrelenting deluge of publicity, vocal special interest groups, and a morally outraged public, created a carnival atmosphere before and during Weinstein’s trial that deprived him of the judicial serenity and calm to which he was entitled.”

The filing also claims that the judge succumbed “to the pressure of an influential social movement determined to punish centuries of male misbehaviour by setting an example in convicting one man.”