Harvey Weinstein Gets Mistrial on Remaining Rape Charge After Threats to Jury Foreperson

Judge Curtis Farber declared a mistrial on the remaining rape charge in Harvey Weinstein’s sex crimes retrial in New York on Thursday, June 12th after the jury foreperson refused to return to the jury deliberation room.

This dramatic conclusion came one day after the jury issued a split verdict on Wednesday, June 11th. They found the disgraced Hollywood producer guilty of a first-degree criminal sex act charge against Miriam Haley, but acquitted him of a similar charge involving Kaja Sokola.

The jury had been sent home early on Wednesday amid tensions and was scheduled to resume deliberations on a third-degree rape charge involving Jessica Mann.

“I feel afraid inside there. I can’t be inside there,” the foreperson wrote in a note to Farber, adding that other jurors had been pressuring him to change his decision.

When asked to return to the jury room on Thursday, he refused. simply responding, “No, I’m sorry.”

The mistrial followed a request from Weinstein himself, who addressed the court on Wednesday. “This is my life that’s on the line,” he said, pleading for a mistrial. “I am not getting a fair trial.”

This retrial was necessary because the New York Court of Appeals overturned Weinstein’s 202 conviction in April 2024, throwing out a 23-year prison sentence from that case. The court found that the initial trial judge made improper rulings, including allowing testimony from women whose allegations were not part of the charges, which prejudiced the jury.

The outcome of this New York retrial doesn’t impact Weinstein’s separate 2022 rape conviction in Los Angeles, for which he is currently serving a 16-year sentence.