As Harvey Weinstein faces a new trial in New York, Gov. Gavin Newsom has signed an extradition warrant for the disgraced former movie mogul and rapist sentenced to be extradited to California.
Weinstein received his convictions for rape and sex crimes in New York overturned by the state Court of Appeals in April. Last month, a ruling tentatively set a new date for the start of his retrial in November. Meanwhile, he has been following bars on the East Coast since his California convictions are still in effect. He was convicted of 3 sex crimes in Los Angeles in December 2022.
Last week, Weinstein was hospitalized at the Bellevue Hospital Correctional Unit on Rikers Island after testing positive for COVID-19 and contracting double pneumonia. It was one of many times he was hospitalized while he was incarcerated.
In March 2020, he was sentenced to 23 years for delinquency after a New York jury found him guilty of rape in the third degree and criminal sexual act in the first degree. It was the first time he had been convicted of criminal fees following accusations leveled against him by dozens of women, first reported in a New York Times investigation and subsequent New York Times articles. Yorker at the end of 2017.
In the days that followed, allegations against the then-powerful Hollywood manufacturer helped spark the #MeToo movement, which would replace talk of sexual assault and women’s rights.
Newsom signed the extradition order on June 19 requesting Weinstein to California. The Los Angeles Times first reported on the order on Wednesday.
He seeks his change for the charges for which he was convicted in Los Angeles, adding forcible rape, forcible acts of sexual penetration and forcible oral copulation. At the Los Angeles trial, an actress said he assaulted her in a Beverly Hills hotel room. Months after the guilty verdict, he was sentenced to 16 years in prison.
He appealed his conviction in Los Angeles in June.
In the Los Angeles case, Weinstein was acquitted of one charge and the jury failed to reach a unanimous resolution on three other charges. One of the charges concerned Jennifer Siebel, a filmmaker who married Newsom and who testified at Weinstein’s trial that he assaulted her. When Weinstein’s conviction was appealed in April, the governor spoke out and bluntly told reporters: “He’s a rapist. “
“Harvey Weinstein is a ruthless predator. He is a rapist, convicted twice. Not once, twice,” Newsom said.
“He never sees the light of day. Period,” he said.
The governor issues an extradition order after the California prosecutor’s office requested the transfer of a user to the state. The state Department of Justice will also have to review this request before it reaches the governor’s office, whose legal team will also need to review it.
The order officially requests the governor of the state where the fugitive is being held to return him to the state of California. In that case, of course, New York State Governor Kathy Hochul would get that extradition request.
In a statement, Gov. Newsom’s office said the governor of the state where a fugitive is being held could keep him there until final costs are resolved or until he is convicted or may receive as a result of a conviction. That would mean Weinstein will also remain in custody until the end of his retrial in New York, tentatively scheduled for Nov. 12.
Last month, New York prosecutors announced they plan to present new evidence to a grand jury as they try to identify a new indictment against Weinstein. They also said they plan to provide new witnesses as more have agreed to testify in a new trial. .
In overturning Weinstein’s convictions in New York, the state Court of Appeals ruled that prosecutors made allegations that Weinstein never charged — anything prohibited by New York legal precedent called the “Molineux rule. “This is a constitutional cover for the accused, guaranteeing their right to due process and a fair trial.
Court of Appeals Judge Jenny Rivera wrote in the court’s majority opinion that New York prosecutors failed to try Weinstein by presenting “irrelevant, prejudicial, and unverified evidence of prior wrongdoing. “
“For those egregious errors it is a new trial,” Judge Rivera wrote.
At the time, Weinstein’s lawyer, Arthur Aidala, applauded the decision.
“We knew that Harvey Weinstein had not won a fair trial,” he said. “There are other people who are unpopular in society, but we still have to apply the law fairly. “
Following the appeal, Gloria Allred criticized the court’s ruling, saying Weinstein’s convictions in Los Angeles would have a better chance because of the difference between the legal criteria and the two states’ legislation. He represented one of the victims of the Weinstein case in New York.
While the state of New York prohibits the filing of allegations that have never resulted in criminal charges, the state of California has a law that allows prosecutors to do so, especially in sex crime cases. Under Article 1108 of the Evidence Code, the State allows prosecutors to present accusations for which a defendant has been charged in a sex crime proceeding.
“In California we have an express law,” Allred said, referring to the law. “I think it’s vital that the New York legislature pass an explicit New York law that more obviously defines the admission of prior wrongdoing, witnesses and their testimony in New York, and better protects the rights of victims. “
A month later, two New York lawmakers proposed legislation that would allow such evidence to be admitted in sexual assault and rape cases. They issued a message saying the state needed a new law of this type, referencing Weinstein’s call a few weeks earlier.
“The recent appeal to Harvey Weinstein’s success underscores the desire to update the state’s criminal law to allow victims who have been silenced to come forward,” the text said.
The New York State Criminal Defense Lawyers Association criticized the proposed bill, calling it a violation of defendants’ rights and leading to wrongful convictions.
During Weinstein’s last court appearance on July 9, he entered the courtroom in a wheelchair. At the time, his lawyer, Diana Fabi Samson, said he was on the hunt for a new trial.
“He is ahead of going to trial and proving his innocence,” he said. “Physically, he is not well. And it actually affects his intellectual state, but I think he’s strong. “