After Weinstein’s case was overturned, New York considers strengthening sex crime prosecutions

By ANTHONY IZAGUIRRE
Associated Press

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — New York lawmakers want to change the legal standard Harvey Weinstein used to get his rape conviction overturned, proposing a bill to strengthen sexual assault prosecutions after the disgraced movie mogul’s case was tossed. The state’s highest court late last month threw out Weinstein’s conviction in a ruling that said a trial judge wrongly allowed women to testify about allegations that weren’t part of his criminal charges. Now, lawmakers are pushing a bill to explicitly allow evidence of prior sexual offenses in sex crimes cases, while also giving judges discretion to bar the testimony if it would create “undue prejudice” against a defendant.