California appeals court upholds Harvey Weinstein rape conviction, orders resentencing

A California appeals court on Friday upheld ex-Hollywood movie mogul Harvey Weinstein’s 2022 rape and sexual assault conviction in the state but ordered the trial judge to resentence him, according to a report from The Hill.

The decision was issued by a unanimous three-judge panel of California’s 2nd District Court of Appeals. The court rejected Weinstein’s efforts to overturn the guilty verdicts from his 2022 trial, the report said.

While the panel affirmed the conviction, it determined that Weinstein’s sentence needed to be revisited. The trial judge had sentenced Weinstein to 16 years in prison, and the appeals court directed that he be resentenced rather than serving the term as originally imposed.

The resentencing order means the case will return to the trial court for a new sentencing proceeding. The appeals court’s ruling leaves in place the conviction itself, but it requires the lower court to enter a revised sentence consistent with the appellate court’s instructions.

The ruling is the latest stage of a long-running set of legal proceedings in California tied to Weinstein’s 2022 conviction for rape and sexual assault. In Friday’s order, the appellate court treated the challenge to the guilty verdicts differently from the challenge to the punishment, concluding that resentencing was required even though the conviction stood.

The next step for Weinstein will be the resentencing hearing in the trial court. The record described in the report centers on the appeals panel’s rejection of the overturning bid and its decision to require a new sentence after finding an issue affecting how the term was imposed.

As the case moves to resentencing, the outcome will be limited to the issues the appeals court identified as warranting a change in sentencing, while the conviction remains in effect unless further review is granted in subsequent proceedings.