After Weinstein's case was overturned, New York lawmakers move to strengthen sex crime prosecutions

New York lawmakers whitethorn soon alteration the ineligible modular that allowed Harvey Weinstein’s rape condemnation to beryllium overturned, with momentum gathering down a measure to fortify intersexual battle prosecutions aft the disgraced movie mogul’s lawsuit was tossed

ALBANY, N.Y. -- New York lawmakers whitethorn soon alteration the ineligible modular that allowed Harvey Weinstein’s rape condemnation to beryllium overturned, with momentum gathering down a measure to fortify sexual assault prosecutions aft the disgraced movie mogul's lawsuit was tossed.

The state's highest tribunal precocious past period threw retired Weinstein's condemnation successful a ruling that said a proceedings justice wrongly allowed women to attest astir allegations that weren't portion of his transgression charges.

Two weeks later, lawmakers are pushing a measure that would let courts to admit grounds that a suspect successful a enactment crimes lawsuit committed different intersexual offenses, portion besides giving a justice discretion to barroom specified grounds if it would make “undue prejudice” against a defendant.

“In intersexual battle cases, which typically trust connected grounds of the survivor, it is indispensable and critical. It allows a perpetrator's signifier of behaviour to beryllium presented successful court," Assemblymember Amy Paulin, a Democrat sponsoring the bill, said astatine a rally for the authorities successful New York City connected Thursday.

New York does let specified grounds to beryllium utilized successful immoderate instances, specified arsenic to beryllium a motive oregon communal scheme, though backers of the bill, which see the lawman person of the authorities Senate, said the existent regularisation is successful request of clarification aft the Weinstein decision.

Paulin said 16 different states person akin laws, arsenic does the national government.

Weinstein, 72, has denied the New York charges. He is accused of raping an aspiring histrion successful 2013 and sexually assaulting a accumulation adjunct successful 2006. His condemnation successful 2020 was a cardinal infinitesimal successful the #MeToo movement, a reckoning with intersexual misconduct successful American society.

New York prosecutors are seeking a September retrial for Weinstein. The erstwhile movie enforcement has besides been convicted of a rape successful California and sentenced to 16 years successful situation there. He is presently jailed successful New York.

The measure has drawn aboriginal disapproval from the Legal Aid Society. Amanda Jack, a argumentation manager astatine the group, said the connection is overly wide and "will determination america truthful acold distant from immoderate consciousness of fairness and owed process that it indispensable beryllium rejected arsenic a unsafe undoing of our strategy of transgression trials.”

Heather Ellis Cucolo, a prof astatine the New York Law School, said admitting specified grounds requires delicate information from the tribunal but could assistance jurors successful intersexual battle cases wherever 2 radical are giving conflicting accounts of an incident.

“It’s incredibly hard to measurement the grounds erstwhile it’s that helium said she said, truthful the full intent past of utilizing anterior atrocious acts is to hopefully amusement that this is simply a pattern. This is thing that this idiosyncratic has done with different victims,” she said.