Gene Maddaus Senior Media Writer Harvey Weinstein was already effectively serving a life sentence when he was flown to Los Angeles to face his second trial on rape and sexual assault charges. That second conviction is now the only thing keeping him in prison, after the New York Court of Appeals overturned his original verdict in a 4-3 ruling on Thursday. The court’s ruling could now be used to bolster the appeal in California, which, if successful, could set the former Hollywood producer free.
Harvey Weinstein CBE (born March 19, 1952) is an American former film producer. He and his brother Bob Weinstein co-founded the entertainment company Miramax, which produced several successful independent films, including Sex, Lies, and Videotape (1989), The Crying Game (1992), Pulp Fiction (1994), Heavenly Creatures (1994), Flirting with Disaster (1996), and Shakespeare in Love (1998).
Weinstein won an Academy Award for producing Shakespeare in Love, and garnered seven Tony Awards for a variety of plays and musicals, including The Producers, Billy Elliot the Musical, and August: Osage County. After leaving Miramax, Weinstein and his brother Bob founded The Weinstein Company, a mini-major film studio. He was co-chairman, alongside Bob, from 2005 to 2017.