Everything you need to know about Harvey Weinstein’s retrial – and why he still won’t be released from prison | Ents & Arts News

Seven years after the allegations against him first appeared online, Harvey Weinstein is back in court.

When the accusations came up at the end of 2017, American actress Alyssa Milano tweeted: “If all the women who are sexually harassed or assaulted have written me as a status, we can give people a sense of the extent of the problem.”

It gave birth to what we now know as the #MeToo movement and a flood of women – famous and not – stories of gender -based violence and harassment.

Weinstein was jailed in 2020 and has since been held in New York’s infamous Rikers Island Prison Complex.

Today, the selection of the jury for the case against the 73-year-old begins, where the original charges of rape and sexual assault will be heard again.

Here we look at the reason why there is a hearing – and why he is likely to stay behind bars – and what happened to #MeToo.

Why is there a rehearsal?

Weinstein is back in court because his first two convictions were overturned in April last year and are now re -switched.

In 2020, he was sentenced to 23 years in prison after being convicted of sexual assault of former production assistant Mimi Haley in 2006 and raped former actor Jessica Mann in 2013.

But in April 2024, the Supreme Court of New York both overturned convictions because of concerns that the judge made improper decisions, including that a woman could testify who was not part of the case.

During a preliminary hearing in January this year, the former Hollywood mogul, who has cancer and heart problems, asked for an earlier date based on his ill health, but it was denied.

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When the Review was decided last year, Judge Farber also ruled that a separate charge regarding a third woman should be added to the case.

In September 2024, the unnamed woman filed allegations that Weinstein forced oral sex on her in a hotel in Manhattan in 2006.

Defense lawyers tried to throw out the charge and claimed that prosecutors were just trying to strengthen their case, but Judge Farber decided to include it in the current resurrection.

Weinstein denies all the allegations against him and claims that any sexual contact was consensual.

Why is he not released?

Even if the repetition in innocent judgment on all three scores ends, Weinstein will remain behind bars on Rikers Island.

This is because he was sentenced for a second time in February 2023 after being convicted of raping an actor in a hotel room in Los Angeles in 2013.

He was also convicted of violent oral copulation and sexual penetration by a foreign object with respect to the same woman, named only in court as Jane DoE 1.

The judge ruled that the 16-year-old sentence should be served after the 23-year-old one imposed in New York.

Weinstein’s attorneys appeal this sentence – but for now the 16 years behind bars are still standing.

Made #metoo a difference – and what has changed?

“Metoo was another way of testifying women about sexual violence and harassment,” says Dr Jane Meyrick, associate professor of health psychology at the University of the West England (Uwe), Sky News says.

‘It exposed the frustration around reporting cases and showed that the justice system was not built to give women justice – because they just gave it up and started saying it online.

“It was very symbolic – because most societies were built around the silence of sexual violence and harassment.”

After #MeToo became viral in 2017, the statute of limitation on sexual assault was expanded in various US states, giving the victims more time to come forward, and there is some reform of non-disclosure agreements (NDAs), which were frequently used by Weinstein.

As a result, more women have expressed and an increasing awareness of gender -based violence, especially among women, who are less likely to tolerate any form of harassment, according to Professor Alison Phipps, a sociologist who specializes in gender at Newcastle University.

“There was an increase in capacity to deal with reports in some organizations and institutions – and we saw many men with a high profile laid down,” she says.

‘But the #MeToo movement focused on individual men and individual cases – rather than the culture that allows the behavior to continue.

“It was about the name and shame and” get rid “of these bad men – by shooting them off their work or creating new crimes to send more of them to the prison – not to deal with the problem at the root.”

Dr Meyrick, who understood the book #MeToo for Women and Men: As you Power through sexual harassment, gives the example of the workplace and the stereotype of ‘Bumping the Perp’ of Dader.

“HR divisions are still not designed to protect workers – they are built to suppress things and make it disappear.” As a result, she says, men are often “quietly argued” with “no real accountability”.

The same goes for schools, Prof Phipps adds, where she believes that she is concerned about the popularity among young boys of self -proclaimed misoginist and Andrew Tate, who are too much punishment.

“The message is” We don’t talk about Andrew Tate “and” You shouldn’t get involved with him, “she says. “But what we have to do is ask boys and young men, ‘Why do you like him? “,” What’s going on here? ” – that deeper conversation is missing,” she says.

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Both experts agree that they will inevitably empower some women to come forward.

But they emphasize that they are often “nothing like” most other cases of sexual violence or harassment, which makes drawing comparison “dangerous”.

Refers to the Weinstein case in the US and Gisele PelicotIn France, Dr Meyrick says: “They have taken several people over a very long period to achieve any conviction – many people’s experiences are nothing like that.”

Prof Phipps adds: “They can create an idea that it is only” real “rape when committed by a serial sex offender – and not every person who does sexual harm is a serial offender.”

Part of her research focused on ‘LAD culture’ in the UK and focused sexual violence at universities.

She says: ‘Much of the kind of violence occurs in social spaces, where there are drugs and alcohol and throwing young people together who do not know where the boundaries are.

“It doesn’t exoner them of any responsibility – but comparing the ‘boys’ to Harvey Weinstein seems inappropriate.”

Dr Meyrick says most victims she spoke to through her research “would not go on the legal route” – and prosecution and conviction figures are still extremely low.

“Most do not try justice. They just want to be believed and heard – that’s what is important and restorative, ‘she says.

But specialist services that can support victims in this way are underfunded – and not enough is being done to change attitudes through sex education and employment policy, she warns.

“Until we free men from the male roles, they are offered by society – where the objectification of women is normalized as banter – they will remain healthy sons of patriarchy.

“We need transformative, compassionate education for young men – and young women. That’s where the gap is still.”