On Wednesday, the trial against Harvey Weinstein began after a jury was finally selected – five years after the original trial that convicted the film mogul.
Prosecutor Shannon Lucey emphasized the former studio boss's influence in the film industry and said that Weinstein used women's dreams of a film career as a weapon against them. He is charged with raping one woman and forcing oral sex on two others.
"The defendant wanted their bodies, and the more they resisted, the more violent he became," the prosecutor said in her opening statement.
Seven women on the jury
The case is being retried because an appeals court overturned the first verdict from 2020. The new trial is taking place at the same court on Manhattan as the first, and two of the victims in the indictment are the same as the first time.
American media note that the conditions are different this time: back then, the #metoo movement was still fresh in everyone's memory, now the jury consists of seven women and five men – previously it was the opposite – and there is a new judge.
During the first trial, demonstrators gathered outside the court and chanted "rapist" and other insults. These are now, according to the media, conspicuous by their absence.
80 women
The allegations against 72-year-old Harvey Weinstein surfaced in October 2017 and became the starting point for the #metoo movement. In total, more than 80 women have accused the film mogul of assault, harassment, or rape.
Weinstein has denied all allegations and claims that all sexual relationships were consensual.
He was sentenced to 16 years in prison in 2022 in Los Angeles for assault and rape of a woman.
The trial is expected to last around five weeks.
The new process is expected to be a shortened version of the previous one, but with an important addition: a charge based on allegations from a woman who was not part of the first indictment.
Additionally, a new expert witness will be called at the request of the prosecution. Psychologist Dawn Hughes will testify about the psychological and traumatic effects of rape and sexual assault.
Hughes testified in favor of Amber Heard at the defamation trial between her and Johnny Depp in 2022 and was also a prosecution witness in the sex trafficking trial against singer R. Kelly in 2021.
Judge Curtis Farber also granted a request from the defense to prevent the term "survivor" from being used to describe Weinstein's victims. Prosecutors were instructed to instruct all police officers who testify to refer to the women as "complaining witnesses" instead.
