Harvey Weinstein Is Going to Prison for Another 16 Years

Disgraced former film producer Harvey Weinstein was sentenced to 16 years behind bars on Thursday, after a California court found him guilty of rape and sexual assault late last year. 

Weinstein is already serving a 23-year-long prison sentence after being convicted of rape and sexual assault in New York in 2020. This new sentence is set to be served after the New York sentence—but Weinstein will likely die behind bars, given he’s 70 years old.

Four of the women who testified in the California case said that the former film producer had sexually assaulted them, and their accounts formed the charges against Weinstein. But the jury ultimately only convicted Weinstein on charges involving one woman’s accusations. Jurors acquitted Weinstein on the charges stemming from one woman’s account, and were also unable to reach a verdict on the charges from two other women’s allegations, including the allegations made by Jennifer Seibel Newsom, wife of California Gov. Gavin Newsom.

The jury also deadlocked on whether Weinstein had planned his assault on the one woman who he was convicted of assaulting, or whether that woman was “particularly vulnerable.” Had jurors decided that either of those allegations were true, Weinstein could have faced up to 24 years in prison. Instead, he could have been sentenced to up to 18 years.

“Harvey Weinstein will never be able to rape another woman,” Siebel Newsom said in a statement after the verdict last year, the New York Times reported. “To all survivors out there—I see you, I hear you, and I stand with you.”

Although she applauded the verdict, Siebel Newsom denounced Weinstein’s legal team, who at one point seemed to suggest that she should fake an orgasm on the stand. 

“Throughout the trial, Weinstein’s lawyers used sexism, misogyny, and bullying tactics to intimidate, demean, and ridicule us survivors,” Siebel Newsom said, according to the Guardian. “This trial was a stark reminder that we as a society have work to do.”

Weinstein, who once ruled Hollywood as a movie producer, is now better known as the man who kicked off the #MeToo movement when he was accused of sexual misconduct in late 2017.

More than 90 women have now accused Weinstein of sexual misconduct, although he has generally denied wrongdoing. Weinstein is now appealing his New York case, which makes the California conviction and sentencing even more important for the women who’ve accused him of sexual misconduct. If Weinstein’s New York conviction is overturned, then the California case would guarantee that he stays behind bars.