Actor Ashley Judd discusses overturned Weinstein conviction: "Sexual violence is such a thief"
New York's highest court overturned disgraced Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein's 2020 conviction for sexual assault on Thursday.
The court of appeals ruled four-to-three that alleged victims who weren't involved in the charges against Weinstein, now 72, should not have been allowed to testify.
Ashley Judd was the first actor to come forward with allegations of sexual harassment against the former movie mogul. She said she was planning her summer vacation to Yellowstone National Park when she heard the conviction was overturned.
"What I want to note is male sexual violence is such a thief," Judd said in a live interview with "CBS Mornings." "First, they rape us and then they steal our time. Because I was having a great morning and now I have to invest in talking about how not only is Harvey Weinstein still guilty, but we have institutional betrayal, which is a real thing."
Weinstein maintains his innocence. He was found guilty of third-degree rape in the 2020 New York case for sexually assaulting an actress in 2013. A jury also found him guilty of committing a criminal sex act that involved a former production assistant in 2006.
Weinstein was sentenced to 23 years in prison.
"We knew Harvey Weinstein did not get a fair trial. There are some people who are unpopular in society, but we still have to apply the law fairly," his attorney said Thursday.
New York Times investigative reporter Jodi Kantor, whose reporting with Megan Twohey on Weinstein helped launch the "Me Too" movement, joined Judd on "CBS Mornings" on Friday and said the case was fragile from the start.
"So think of it this way, if you took all of the women who have terrible stories about Harvey Weinstein, they could fill a courtroom of their own, women like Ashley," Kantor said. "However most of those women, like Ashley, were not eligible to stand at the center of a New York criminal trial."
She explained that it was due to the location and time of the alleged crimes.
"The acts didn't take place here in New York. They took place too long ago. A lot of it was sexual harassment as you experienced and not the kind of criminal violent acts that can land you in jail," Kantor said.
That left prosecutors with two women at the center of Weinstein's New York trial.
"So to bolster their case, prosecutors brought in additional witnesses, women who had experienced terrible things at the hands of Weinstein," Kantor explained. "But it was controversial legally because the classic rule of criminal court of course is that the evidence should only pertain to the acts that are under scrutiny in court."
Kantor told "CBS Mornings" that when Weinstein was convicted, it was important for the "Me Too" movement because "he was convicted with a chorus of women's voices." However, that also became the center of his appeal, she said.
Manhattan prosecutors said they plan to retry the case.
"We will do everything in our power to retry this case, and remain steadfast in our commitment to survivors of sexual assault," a spokesperson for Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who was not in office at the time of Weinstein's 2020 case, said following the announcement of the appeals court decision.
For Judd, she knows that could be painful for survivors.
"Courtrooms are not healing spaces," she said. "They are traumatizing spaces and victims should not have to perform their trauma in order to find peace. You know what will give us satisfaction and peace is when men stop raping women. Period."
Weinstein will continue serving a 16-year sentence after a conviction in a separate California case, where there is an anticipated appeal being filed next month that could use similar arguments to the overturned conviction in New York.
"The California rules on allowing those kinds of witnesses are a little clearer so that case may hold up," Kantor said. "I should tell you the attorney that Weinstein is using is the same one who was able to get Bill Cosby's conviction thrown out."
In a statement regarding the New York court ruling, the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office said:
"Unlike New York law, California law (Evidence Code section 1108) permits the admissibility of propensity evidence in sexual assault cases subject to the judge's discretion," the office said. "Consistent with this law, our office sought the admission of propensity evidence of Mr. Weinstein's sexual assaults in other jurisdictions."
Judd said "Me Too" is a movement, not a moment. She's committed to helping survivors.
"So I think we have to look at the whole pattern and then we have to look at our institutions and strive toward institutional courage," Judd said of where her focus is now.
"The bad news is there are many survivors of male sexual violence and the good news is there are a lot of us. We can support each other. We can nurture each other and when we tell our stories we're exercising leadership," she said. "We're encouraging others to join us in collective action for a moral purpose."