This is unfair – Ashley Judd on Harvey Weinstein’s conviction being overturned

By Charlotte McLaughlin, PA Senior Entertainment Reporter

Actress Ashley Judd has described it as “unfair to survivors” after a court overturned Hollywood movie mogul Harvey Weinstein’s 2020 conviction for rape.

Double Jeopardy star Judd, who was among the first women to make allegations on the record against Weinstein, is also a campaigner on women’s rights.

While sharing an article that stated that Weinstein’s 23-year sentence for rape had been overturned in an Instagram story, Judd wrote: “This is unfair to survivors. We Live In Our Truth. We know what happened.”

Hollywood producer Weinstein is still in prison after being sentenced to 16 years for rape and sexual assault in Los Angeles last year.

Judd previously alleged she thought she was attending a breakfast hotel meeting in 1997, while filming the thriller Kiss The Girls, when he began pressuring her to give and receive massages and to watch him shower.

In a bid to get out of the bathroom, she claims she resorted to striking a deal with him that she would say yes to his advances when she won an Oscar for one of his films.

In 2019, the United States District Court in Los Angeles dismissed a sexual harassment claim made by Judd against Weinstein in which she said he defamed her, damaging her career.

Mira Sorvino, who previously made allegations against Weinstein and won an Oscar for Mighty Aphrodite, tweeted that she was “disgusted” at the justice system and “horrified”.

On Thursday, Weinstein’s lawyer Arthur Aidala called the Court of Appeals ruling “a tremendous victory for every criminal defendant in the state of New York”, according to the AP news agency.

The majority decision by the Court of Appeal in New York read that “the trial court erroneously admitted testimony of uncharged, alleged prior sexual acts against persons other than the complainants of the underlying crimes” and this was “an abuse of judicial discretion”.

A spokesperson for the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office told the PA news agency: “We will do everything in our power to retry this case, and remain steadfast in our commitment to survivors of sexual assault.”