Weinstein’s rape and sexual assault retrial includes accusations from three girls, together with one who wasn’t a part of the unique trial.
Opening statements are set for Wednesday in New York for disgraced former film mogul Harvey Weinstein’s rape retrial, this time with a majority-female jury deciding the landmark #MeToo case.
Prosecutors and Weinstein’s attorneys completed selecting a sixth and last alternate on Tuesday after a range course of yielded a seven-woman, five-man jury and 5 alternate jurors on Monday. Alternates step in if a member of the principle panel can’t see the trial by means of.
Weinstein was convicted at his first trial in 2020 by a jury of 5 girls and 7 males. The decision marked a pivotal second for the #MeToo motion in opposition to sexual misconduct, fuelled by a collection of allegations in opposition to the producer of Oscar winners together with Pulp Fiction and Shakespeare in Love.
In a blow to #MeToo activists, New York’s highest courtroom final yr overturned the conviction and 23-year jail sentence after it discovered that the unique trial decide allowed girls whose accusations weren’t a part of the fees Weinstein confronted to provide proof in courtroom.
Weinstein’s rape and sexual assault retrial includes accusations from three girls: an aspiring actor who stated he raped her in 2013 and two girls who made separate allegations of pressured oral intercourse in 2006. One of many two wasn’t a part of the unique trial.
Within the meantime, Weinstein can be dealing with a separate 2022 rape conviction in Los Angeles.
Weinstein, 73, has pleaded not responsible and denies raping or sexually assaulting anybody. He has insisted that each one sexual encounters he was concerned in had been consensual.
The 12 members of the principle jury for the New York retrial embody a physics researcher, a photographer, a dietitian, a therapist, an funding financial institution software program engineer and a hearth security director. Others have expertise in actual property, TV commercials, debt assortment, social work and different fields.
These chosen had been questioned about their backgrounds, life experiences and varied different factors that would relate to their capacity to be truthful and neutral within the extremely publicised case.
Prosecutor Shannon Lucey sought assurances that potential jurors might put apart any place or emotions that they had about #MeToo.
Bombshell allegations in opposition to Weinstein erupted in 2017 and led to a flood of allegations in opposition to different highly effective males as girls fought again in opposition to sexual violence in what grew to become generally known as the #MeToo motion.
The Hollywood mogul underwent emergency coronary heart surgical procedure after being rushed from jail to a hospital in New York in September. He was later identified with bone marrow most cancers and obtained therapy in jail for persistent myeloid leukaemia.
