NEW YORK — Harvey Weinstein will remain jailed in New York City while the Manhattan district attorney works to retry his 2020 rape case that was thrown out last month.
Weinstein appeared in court Thursday for an extradition hearing that lasted just minutes. He rejected an extradition request from California, and his next court date was set for August 7.
The 72-year-old had been serving a 23-year sentence in New York before the state’s highest court overturned his conviction last month, ruling the judge should not have allowed other women to testify about allegations he was not charged with.
Now that his New York conviction has been thrown out, California prosecutors want him extradited to serve a 16-year sentence for raping a woman at a 2013 Los Angeles film festival.
“According to the procedural rules here and in most states, a governor needs to sign such a warrant for extradition,” defense attorney Diana Fabi Samson said Thursday. “Our main concern is Mr. Weinstein is here in New York, so we can prepare for trial and that he get the medical care that he needs.”
Weinstein’s lawyers say they also plan to appeal his conviction in California.
Why was Weinstein’s conviction overturned?
A New York jury convicted Weinstein in 2020 on charges of forcibly performing a sex act on one woman and rape in the third degree for an attack on another woman. He was acquitted on charges of predatory sex assault and first degree rape.
Six women testified against him during his trial, even though his charges only related to claims from three of them.
The New York Court of Appeals issued a 4-3 decision last month to overturn his conviction, saying “the trial court erroneously admitted testimony of uncharged, alleged prior sexual acts.” One judge wrote in a dissent the decision was “endangering decades of progress in this incredibly complex and nuanced area of law” regarding sex crimes.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who was not the district attorney during Weinstein’s previous trial, has said he will retry the case. That retrial is expected some time in September.
Weinstein returns to Rikers Island
Once last month’s appeals court decision came down, Weinstein was transferred from a state prison in upstate New York to Rikers Island. He was then taken to Bellevue Hospital, where his attorney told CBS New York he received “immediate medical attention.”
“A myriad of tests are being performed on Harvey and he is being kept for observation,” Weinstein’s lawyer Arthur Aidala said in a statement at the time.
After 10 days in the hospital, Weinstein returned to Rikers’ infirmary Monday.
“He’s holding up the best he can,” Samson said Thursday.
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