The jury of seven men and five women acquitted Weinstein on the most serious charges, a single count of first-degree rape as well as two counts of predatory sexual assault, which carried a potential life sentence. Those charges relied on testimony by actress Annabella Sciorra, who said Weinstein raped her in the early 1990s.

On Monday, Weinsteins lawyers urged Burke to impose the minimum possible sentence of five years, asking him to consider Weinsteins charitable activities while saying a longer sentence would likely mean Weinstein would die in prison.

His life story, his accomplishments, and struggles are simply remarkable and should not be disregarded in total because of the jurys verdict, they said.

Before the fall

Weinstein has been awaiting sentencing in New Yorks Rikers Island jail, where he was moved last Thursday after a 10-day hospital stay at Bellevue Hospital where he underwent a procedure to clear a heart blockage.

He was a powerful figure in Hollywood and a contributor to Democratic candidates. He won an Academy Award for producing Shakespeare in Love and was responsible for other acclaimed films including Pulp Fiction, The English Patient and Gangs of New York.

Prosecutors portrayed Weinstein as a serial predator who had manipulated women with promises of career advancement in Hollywood, coaxing them to hotel rooms or private apartments and then overpowering and violently attacking them.

Haleyi testified at the trial that Weinstein invited her to his home in 2006 after she had worked on one of his television productions, backed her into a bedroom, held her down on the bed and forced himself on her orally.

Mann told jurors that Weinstein raped her in a Manhattan hotel room in March 2013, about a month into what she described as an extremely degrading relationship with him that continued for several years after the attack. Mann called Weinstein a Jekyll and Hyde character, charming in public but prone to rage when they were alone.

Weinsteins lawyers argued during the trial that the six women who testified against him were reframing consensual encounters as assaults out of regret.

In Fridays filing, prosecutors listed more than a dozen accusations going back to 1978, when they said he sexually assaulted an employee of his Buffalo, New York-based music company in a hotel room.

Court documents unsealed on Monday included an e-mail to Weinstein from his estranged brother, Bob Weinstein, telling him he belonged in hell.U deserve a lifetime achievement award, Bob Weinstein wrote in the November 2017 message, for the sheer savagery and immorality and inhumaneness, for the acts u have perpetrated.

Reuters

Excerpt from:
Movie mogul and #MeToo motivation Harvey Weinstein gets 23 years in prison - Business Day