Weinstein retrial – A judge declared a mistrial Friday in Harvey Weinstein’s New York rape retrial after jurors deadlocked on whether he raped Jessica Mann. The decision leaves the New York rape charge in limbo after three trials, even as Weinstein remains convicted for other sex
When jurors told Judge Curtis Farber they could not reach a unanimous verdict, the newest chapter of Harvey Weinstein’s New York rape case effectively ended in the courtroom—at least for now.
The jury deadlocked Friday in Weinstein’s closely watched #MeToo-era retrial, prompting Farber to declare a mistrial. The case had been weighing whether the former Hollywood mogul raped Jessica Mann, a hairstylist and actor, after a third trial attempt at getting a unanimous decision.
The mistrial keeps the New York rape charge in limbo. Weinstein, 74, remains behind bars based on other sex-crime convictions on two U.S. coasts. But this one charge—one count of rape in the third degree—still stands unresolved after three trials.
A majority-male Manhattan jury had been deliberating whether Weinstein raped Mann, following a fraught relationship in 2013.. At issue was an encounter Mann described as nonconsensual. which she said occurred while Weinstein was then married and while she was in a complicated. evolving emotional position.
Weinstein’s defense argued that the encounter was consensual.
Jurors had been deliberating for three days when the stalemate surfaced.. In a note sent to the judge, they wrote that they “have concluded that they cannot reach” a unanimous verdict.. Farber instructed them to continue deliberating—something New York judges typically do at least once after a jury signals it is stuck.
By the end of the day, the impasse held.
Before this retrial began, an appeals court overturned Weinstein’s 2020 New York conviction on charges involving Mann and another accuser. A retrial last year similarly failed to produce a verdict, breaking down amid infighting on Mann’s portion of the case.
The current jury heard nearly three weeks of testimony, with five days devoted to Mann’s account. Mann testified that she willingly had some sexual interludes with Weinstein, but said he subjected her to unwanted sex after she repeatedly said no.
Weinstein’s lawyers emphasized that Mann continued seeing him afterward and at times expressed warmth toward him, arguing that her later conduct showed the encounter was not assault.
Mann, 40, told jurors that her feelings remained conflicted. She described being caught in the aftermath of what happened and what it meant for her relationship with Weinstein and for herself.
Her perspective shifted in 2017, after a wave of allegations against Weinstein helped propel #MeToo. Some of those allegations led to criminal convictions for Weinstein in New York and California.
Weinstein has said he “acted wrongly” but has maintained that he never assaulted anyone.
The defense and prosecution both confronted the fact that Mann did not approach the case as a straight-line story of a single outcome. Prosecutors framed the day’s actions as coercive, and the defense pointed to Mann’s continued contact and warmth as evidence of consent.
Weinstein did not testify in the retrial.
The Associated Press generally does not identify people who say they have been sexually assaulted, but Mann agreed to be named.
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