5,000 signatures reached
To: Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg
Retry Harvey Weinstein NOW and hold him accountable!
Harvey Weinstein—the disgraced film producer who was convicted of rape in 2020—had his convictions shamefully overturned by the New York Court of Appeals. Nearly 100 courageous women came forward, reporting instances of sexual harassment, abuse, and assault by Weinstein. This decision is a blow to them and to sexual assault survivors everywhere.
Sign the petition to the Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and demand that he not make survivors wait for this injustice to be resolved. Demand he retry Harvey Weinstein immediately.
Why is this important?
Though accusations had been made against Harvey Weinstein long before, they came to a head in 2017 when The New York Times and New Yorker released in-depth stories with accounts of Weinstein’s abuse. Still, it wasn’t until 2020, three years later, that Weinstein was convicted of rape and sentenced to 23 years in prison in New York. He was also convicted of rape in California in 2022, a 16-year sentence that still stands.
The New York Court of Appeals shamefully overturned his 2020 conviction, claiming that allowing other women to share testimony of their experiences of sexual harassment and abuse to demonstrate a pattern of behavior should not have been permitted. According to Judge Madeline Singas, this is part of a "disturbing trend" of sexual assault cases being overturned. It also comes just a few years after Bill Cosby’s sexual assault conviction was overturned by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.
Every 68 seconds, someone is sexually assaulted in the U.S. Only a fraction of perpetrators of sexual assault and violence are held accountable. It is heartbreaking and infuriating that the New York Court of Appeals has twisted the law to let Weinstein, a convicted rapist, walk out of the New York prison. We owe it to the nearly 100 women who risked their livelihoods and careers to come forward— and the countless others who could not come forward—to make sure the charges against Weinstein hold.
Ashley Judd, one of the early actresses to bravely share publicly her accusations against Weinstein, said that the Court of Appeals decision was "unfair to survivors," and that "(w)e still live in our truth. And we know what happened." We believe the nearly 100 women who came forward against Weinstein. And together, we can ensure that their efforts to hold Weinstein accountable are upheld by the New York legal system.