Harvey Weinstein Sentenced to 23 Years in Prison on Rape, Sexual Assault Conviction

(The AEGIS Alliance) – NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK – Disgraced Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein will spend the next 23 years in a New York State prison and possibly for the rest of his life after Supreme Court Judge James Burke handed down the prison sentence on Wednesday morning.

On February 24, Weinstein was convicted of committing sexual assault in the first degree and rape in the third-degree.

Weinstein’s trial in New York that started on January 6 has now come to an end. However, Weinstein’s defense team says they will appeal the jury’s decision that convicted him on two out of five charges he was facing.

Weinstein was ordered by Judge Burke before the sentencing that he will be required to register as a sex offender.

For Weinstein’s sexual assault conviction, he was sentenced to 20 years in prison with a maximum sentence of 25 years, he also must spend five years of supervised release after his prison term. Weinstein was given three years in prison for the third-degree rape charge.

Judge Burke decided that Weinstein’s sentences will be served consecutively instead of concurrent, meaning he will have to serve the prison terms separately rather than combined into one term.

Donna Rotunno, the attorney for Weinstein was upset during her press release statements about the sentencing outside the courthouse, calling it “obscene.”

“Of course it’s too harsh. It’s ridiculous. That number was obnoxious. There are murderers who will get out of court faster than Harvey Weinstein will. That number spoke to the pressure of movements in the public, that number did not speak to the evidence that came out in the trial,” Rotunno told reporters.

“That number did not speak to the testimony that we heard. That number did not speak to evidence, nor did it speak to justice. We were looking for fairness and we didn’t get it.”

Weinstein attorney Damon Cheronis agreed with Rutunno and said, “He wasn’t treated fairly at all.”

Another Weinstein attorney named Arthur Aidala said Weinstein will likely serve his prison sentence at New York’s Fishkill Correctional Facility that has a hospital.

Rotunno said that Weinstein’s defense team is expected to file an appeal around July. The team also said they don’t know when he will be arraigned on the four charges he is facing in Los Angeles County, California.

Before Weinstein’s sentencing, Rotunno told the judge that he has a long list of illnesses and should be a shorter prison sentence.

Joan Illuzzi who was the lead prosecutor asked Judge Burke that Weinstein be sentenced to “the maximum or near the maximum years in prison.” Weinstein was facing up to 29 years in prison.

None of Weinstein’s family members were present at the sentencing.

Gloria Allred, who is an attorney that represents several of Weinstein’s accusers, held a sign up outside the courthouse that read, “This is What Justice Looks Like: 20 + 3 Years.”

President and CEO of Time’s Up Foundation released a statement in response to Weinstein’s sentencing that reads, “First and foremost, we are grateful for the courage and strength of Mimi Haleyi, Jessica Mann, Annabella Sciorra, Dawn Dunning, Tarale Wulff, and Lauren Young, who bravely testified in court, and we remain in solidarity with the more than 100 survivors who suffered abuse, harassment, and rape at the hands of Harvey Weinstein. The trauma of sexual assault and harassment is lifelong — we can only hope that today’s sentence brings all of the survivors of Harvey Weinstein some measure of peace.”

The statement went on to say, “We also hope that these women take pride in knowing the impact they have had on our culture at large. Whether by inspiring more survivors to come forward and seek help, changing how the justice system responds to sexual violence, or leading corporate boards to hold more CEOs accountable for toxic workplace culture, the social change catalyzed by these survivors has been nothing short of transformational.”

A group formed from 24 Weinstein accusers called The Silence Breakers, which includes Rosanna Arquette, Rose McGowan, Lauren Sivan, and Ashley Judd made a statement that reads “Harvey Weinstein’s legacy will always be that he’s a convicted rapist. He is going to jail — but no amount of jail time will repair the lives he ruined, the careers he destroyed, or the damage he has caused.”

Kyle James Lee – The AEGIS Alliance – This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.