Harvey Weinstein Guilty, Remanded to Police Custody to Await Sentencing

Harvey Weinstein has been found guilty of two of the five counts he was indicted for, those being the third-degree rape of Jessica Mann and a criminal sexual act in the first degree against Miriam Haley. He was handcuffed and remanded into police custody and denied bail as he awaits sentencing on March 11th, with his conviction carrying a potential sentence of 5 to 25 years.

These were the least-serious charges Weinstein was accused of, and he was found not guilty of two counts of predatory sexual assault and one count of first degree rape against Jessica Mann. These were always going to be either-or convictions, he couldn’t have been found guilty of all five. The different charges were basically allowing jurors to choose to what degree Weinstein raped Mann and Haley.

The good news for Weinstein is that he apparently, somewhat miraculously, no longer needs the walking frame he’d been using throughout the trial. Once that verdict came in, he could walk perfectly fine when he was escorted out. The bad news is he’s still facing charges of rape and sexual assault in California and being convicted of those things in New York isn’t going to make him very likely to be acquitted.

There was a lot of reaction online; one common theme was that outlets like ours can now refer to Weinstein as a “convicted rapist” or just “rapist” instead of “alleged rapist.” That’s the sort of language we use to cover our asses legally from defamation for terrible people who are also litigious. Like if an unnamed actress had been physically and emotionally abusing her husband, but made it seem like she was really the victim, we would still refer to it as “alleged abuse” unless she admitted or was convicted of it no matter how absolutely sure we were she did it. Hypothetically.

Harvey Weinstein is a convicted rapist. No matter how hard the defense might try, he will remain a convicted rapist til the day he dies.

— Ellen Barkin (@EllenBarkin) February 24, 2020

Harvey Weinstein is now a convicted rapist.

If there's a man who doesn't deserve bail, it's him.

— Padma Lakshmi (@PadmaLakshmi) February 24, 2020

It seems like most people had something to say about Weinstein being convicted, and none of it is anything Weinstein would be happy to read.

This is a victory for the brave survivors who spoke out against Weinstein.

Our system so often silences survivors and delivers injustice, so we can’t let up in our fight to lift up survivors and hold predators who abuse their power fully accountable. https://t.co/8BVzpJB0Rg

— Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) February 24, 2020

Yesterday, I wrote about how Weinstein’s potential acquittal wouldn’t be a miscarriage of justice, but clearly justice is better served by this verdict. I believe the goal of justice should be reparative and not punitive, but Harvey Weinstein is a rape golem with no dick who terrorized Hollywood for decades so anything that stops him is good news.