Harvey Weinstein has been convicted to 23 years imprisonment in a New York State prison after he was found guilty Wednesday morning, New York time.
Weinstein’s case which was presided over by Supreme Court Judge, James Burke witnessed Harvey plead not guilty throughout the trial despite being accused by six different women on the grounds of first degree and third-degree rape.
Based on his first-degree count of criminal sexual act, the former movie producer will serve 20 years in prison plus five years of supervised release. For the third-degree charge, Harvey was given three years jail term. According to the Hollywood Reporter, the Judge made a decision to make the sentences consecutive, rather than concurrent.
Donna Rotunno, attorney for Weinstein regarding the case in a press conference soon-after the sentence called the judge’s final ruling ‘harsh’ and disclosed further by saying, “Mr. Weinstein has a multitude of medical issues, there are lists of things that are physically wrong with him and are serious. Mr. Weinstein has a history of heart disease in his family. This is a situation that the loss of freedom will affect his ability to get the type of medical care he will need for the list of issues he is dealing with.”
Time’s Up president and CEO Tina Tchen, has responded to the verdict in a statement that thanks the courageous six women that came out to testify against Harvey, “First and foremost, we are grateful for the courage and strength of Mimi Haley, 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.”
