US jury quashes rape charge for Harvey Weinstein

The jury in the trial against Harvey Weinstein could not agree on rape, and the judge declared the indictment null and void. Yesterday, jurors had found Weinstein guilty of sexual assault, a crime that carries a sentence of up to 25 years in prison.

The first real test for the #MeToo movement ended with a mixed verdict: on the fifth day in chambers, the jury of seven women and five men found Harvey Weinstein guilty of a single count of criminal sexual act. The jurors then acquitted the former producer of another similar charge but have not yet reached a verdict on the only rape charge, that of former assistant Jessica Mann. This will be discussed again when the jurors reconvene: Judge Curtis Farber sent them home after indications emerged of a particularly tense atmosphere in the jury room.

It was an unusual day in court. According to the account given by the jury foreman to Judge Farber and the lawyers, during the deliberations members of the pool allegedly argued heatedly, at times going so far as to shout at each other and threaten each other with violence. Weinstein himself had opened his mouth in the courtroom asking for a mistrial: 'It's my life at stake, this is not right,' the 73-year-old former Hollywood king had said, but the judge had refused. Farber then closed the day early to allow the jurors to catch up before closing on the third count, the alleged rape of Mann: 'Start from scratch'.

The dismissal of the rape charge came after the jury foreman refused to return to the jury room today, saying he felt threatened by other members of the pool. At stake was the third count against the former producer, the one that had seen aspiring actress Jessica Mann again in the role of accuser. This part of the trial had been on hold after the judge had sent the jury home yesterday due to tensions in the jury room. Jurors had agreed on the first two sexual assault charges: Weinstein was found guilty on the charge of former Project Runway assistant Miriam Haley and not guilty on that of Polish model Kaja Sokola. More complex was the case of Mann, who told the courtroom that she had had a complicated relationship with Weinstein, one of coercion and fear, though partly consensual. The ambiguous nature of their relationship had been the subject of particular attention by the defence and the jury, who had repeatedly asked to hear her testimony again during deliberations.

Weinstein had already been convicted in Manhattan a first time in 2020 for rape and criminal sexual act, but was retried after the initial verdict was overturned last year by the New York State Court of Appeals on a formal defect: the judge in the first trial should not have admitted the testimony of women who had accused Weinstein of sexual assaults that did not result in formal charges.