Harvey Weinstein Awaits March 11 Sentencing in Manhattan Courtroom
/Manhattan prosecutors submitted a sentencing memorandum brief on Friday in advance of disgraced film producer Harvey Weinstein’s March 11 sentencing on convictions of rape and criminal sexual assault. Weinstein faces up to 29 years in prison at his sentencing.
On the criminal sex act count, the fallen Hollywood mogul faces a minimum of five years in prison and a maximum of 25 years in prison. The third-degree rape count carries a maximum penalty of four years in prison. The judge could have the sentences run concurrently.
At Wednesday’s Weinstein sentencing hearing, his accusers will have the opportunity to confront him in court, and he will be allowed to speak on his own behalf, after declining to testify at trial.
Even though the convictions represent a first offence for Weinstein, prosecutors argued for a substantial prison terms, as they detailed “a litany of sex crimes and instances of sexual harassment” dating back to 1978, writes the New York Times.
Joan Illuzzi, the lead prosecutor, said the list of assaults detailed in the memo “show a lifetime of abuse toward others, sexual and otherwise.” She also noted Harvey Weinstein’s “total lack of remorse for the harm he has caused,” while encouraging the judge to send a message to the larger public about sexual assault in the workplace.
It was, she wrote, “totally appropriate in this case to communicate to a wider audience that sexual assault, even if perpetrated upon an acquaintance or in a professional setting, is a serious offense worthy of a lengthy prison sentence.”
Ms. Illuzzi did not specifically detail how much prison time prosecutors are seeking.
Weinstein also faces charges in California that he raped a woman in 2013, at a Los Angeles hotel. He’s separately charged for assaulting a different woman the following night in a Beverly Hills hotel. The AP reports that 11 other women “alleging sexual misconduct by Weinstein told reporters Thursday that they hope to testify against him at that trial.”