Harvey Weinstein has been sentenced to 23 years in prison, a little more than two weeks after he was found guilty of rape and committing a criminal sexual act. The judgment was announced Wednesday morning at the Manhattan Supreme Court by Judge James Burke. The sentencing will likely be seen as a victory for Weinstein’s numerous accusers, considering the charges on which he was convicted carry a minimum sentence of five years and maximum sentence of 29 years.
During the Wednesday sentencing, accusers Miriam Haley and Jessica Mann gave final “victim impact” statements before the judge. Haley, who said Weinstein sexually assaulted her in his apartment in 2006, said the attack “scarred me deeply, mentally and emotionally.”
“What he did not only stripped me of my dignity as a human being and a woman, but it crushed my confidence,” she continued.
“I don’t know how to explain the horrors of being raped by someone who has power,” said Mann. “The impact on the psyche is profound. Rape is not just one moment…it is forever.”
In his final statement, Weinstein apologized to both women and said he had “deep remorse” about his actions. He also, however, said he was “totally confused” about the breadth of the #MeToo movement.
“I think men are confused about all of this…this feeling of thousands of men and women who are losing due process, I’m worried about this country,” he said.
Manhattan district attorney Cyrus Vance released a statement shortly after the sentencing, thanking the court “for imposing a sentence that puts sexual predators and abusive partners in all segments of society on notice.”
“We thank the survivors for their remarkable statements today and indescribable courage over the last two years,” he continued. “Harvey Weinstein deployed nothing less than an army of spies to keep them silent. But they refused to be silent, and they were heard. Their words took down a predator and put him behind bars, and gave hope to survivors of sexual violence all across the world.”
The prosecution was led by assistant district attorney Joan Illuzzi-Orbon and Meghan Hast, deputy chief of the violent criminal enterprises unit.
Weinstein’s trial came to a close at the end of February, with a New York jury of five women and seven men finding him guilty of rape in the third degree and a criminal sexual act in the first degree. The disgraced producer, who was being prosecuted by the Manhattan District Attorney’s office, spent the first 10 days following his verdict at Bellevue Hospital, where he underwent a heart procedure in which doctors inserted a stent. Last Thursday, he was sent to the infirmary unit at Rikers Island jail.
On Monday, Weinstein’s spokesperson Juda Engelmayer said Weinstein suffered a fall while in jail. Over the course of the trial, the convicted rapist typically used a walker to get in and out of the courthouse, but Engelmayer claimed that Weinstein has not been provided one in jail. According to TMZ, Weinstein has been kept isolated and under watch 24 hours a day while in Rikers.
Through it all, Weinstein’s attorneys have said they will appeal his guilty verdict, noting their client was acquitted of the most serious charges against him—which included two counts of predatory sexual assault and one charge of first-degree rape. Had he been found guilty of those charges, Weinstein could have faced a maximum sentence of life in prison.
Weinstein, whose fall from grace began in October 2017 after the publication of bombshell investigations by Pulitzer Prize–winning New York Times reporters Megan Twohey and Jodi Kantor and the New Yorker’s Ronan Farrow, has been accused of sexual misconduct by more than 90 women. He has frequently denied all allegations of nonconsensual acts.
Even now, new details about his tumble from the top echelons of the film business are still being uncovered. On Tuesday, the New York Times reported that previously sealed court documents showed that Weinstein sent emails to two dozen influential people in 2017, including Michael Bloomberg and Jeff Bezos, in which he pleaded for their help in the wake of the scorching sexual misconduct allegations being made against him. The documents show that Weinstein pledged to join a counseling program for sex addicts. He also alleged that he was suicidal and had been sexually abused as a child.
In one email, Weinstein aggressively responded to a supposed allegation made by Jennifer Aniston. (The allegations were misconstrued; Aniston had accused him not of groping her, but of being rude. In another instance, Aniston said he pressured her to wear Marchesa, the fashion label founded by Weinstein’s now estranged wife, Georgina Chapman.) “Jen Aniston should be killed,” Weinstein wrote in an email to his representative, per the Times.
Weinstein’s legal battles are not yet over. During his New York trial, the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office charged him with forcible rape, forcible oral copulation, sexual penetration by use of force, and sexual battery by restraint. If convicted, Weinstein could face up to 28 years in California prison. It is unclear as of yet how the Los Angeles case will proceed in the wake of his New York sentence.
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