Law & Order: SVU actress Mariska Hargitay has released a statement condemning the decision to overturn disgraced producer Harvey Weinstein's rape conviction in New York.
"The reversal of Harvey Weinstein's conviction comes as a painful and infuriating affront to survivors and advocates everywhere," she wrote in a post shared on Instagram. "To every survivor in this case and every survivor who has to bear witness to this incorrigible marriage of justice, my heart is with you today, tomorrow, and forever."
Weinstein, co-founder of prolific movie studios The Weinstein Company and Miramax, was accused by several major Hollywood figures of sexual assault, rape, and other misconduct in an extensive report from The New York Times in October 2017. The following year, he was arrested on rape charges. In February 2020, he was found guilty and sentenced to 23 years in prison. He was charged a further 16 years, to be served separately, in Los Angeles in 2022.
As reported by ABC News, the New York ruling was overturned on Thursday, April 25.
In a 4-3 opinion, the New York Court of Appeals overturned his rape conviction after ruling the judge in the trial "erroneously admitted testimony of uncharged, alleged prior sexual acts against persons other than the complainants of the underlying crimes." If his alleged victims come forward again, the Manhattan District Attorney's office will retry the disgraced movie producer.
He will not be released from prison because of his conviction in California, which remains unaffected by the decision in New York.
In an essay shared in January, Mariska Hargitay said that she was raped when she was in her 30s. "He was a friend," she wrote. "Then he wasn’t. I tried all the ways I knew to get out of it. I tried to make jokes, to be charming, to set a boundary, to reason, to say no. He grabbed me by the arms and held me down. I was terrified." In 2004, she founded the Joyful Heart Foundation to help survivors of sexual and domestic violence.
