Harvey Weinstein Sentenced to 16 Years in Prison for Rape and Sexual Assault Conviction

Harvey Weinstein, the disgraced movie producer, was sentenced to 16 years in prison on Thursday in a Los Angeles courtroom. Weinstein was convicted of one count of rape and two counts of sexual assault against an Italian model and actor during a 2013 film festival in the run-up to that year’s Academy Awards.

The 70-year-old Weinstein is already serving a 23-year prison sentence in New York for criminal sexual assault and third-degree rape. The jury spared Weinstein an even longer sentence when they acquitted him of the sexual battery of a massage therapist and failed to reach verdicts on counts involving two other women.

Superior Court Judge Lisa B. Lench denied a defense motion for a new trial before handing down the sentence. Weinstein’s victim sobbed in the courtroom as he spoke.

The sentence comes on top of the more than 20 years the 70-year-old Weinstein has left to serve for a similar 2020 conviction in New York, furthering the fall of the onetime movie magnate who became a #MeToo magnet.

The sentencing of Harvey Weinstein marks a major victory for the #MeToo movement and a significant step forward in the fight against sexual assault. It sends a strong message that perpetrators of sexual assault will be held accountable for their actions.