Harvey Weinstein Sentenced to 23 Years in Prison

Convicted rapist Harvey Weinstein was sentenced to 23 years in a New York state prison Wednesday morning after the disgraced Hollywood producer was found guilty last month of a first-degree criminal sexual act charge and third-degree rape. The judge also declared he would be registered as a sex offender, as per The Hollywood Reporter.

Weinstein, 67, was facing between five and 29 years in prison, but Weinstein’s New York-based lawyer, Arthur Aidala, told The Hollywood Reporter his team was “nervous” about the sentencing prior to to Wednesday morning’s ruling.

In a letter sent to the judge Friday, the prosecution asked for a “lengthy” sentence, saying that based on precedence, it is “totally appropriate in this case to communicate to a wider audience that sexual assault, even if perpetrated upon an acquaintance or in a professional setting, is a serious offense worthy of a lengthy prison sentence.”

The letter concluded, as per THR, “Based upon the totality of the information before this Court, namely: (1) the evidence adduced at trial regarding defendant’s sexual assaults of Miriam Haley and Jessica Mann; (2) his sexual assaults of the Molineux witnesses, Tarale Wulff, Dawn Dunning, and Lauren Young, all committed under strikingly similar circumstances; and (3) his additional acts set forth in this letter that show a lifetime of abuse towards others, sexual and otherwise, the People will ask the Court to impose a sentence that reflects the seriousness of defendant’s offenses, his total lack of remorse for the harm he has caused, and the need to deter him and others from engaging in further criminal conduct.”

Monday night, Weinstein’s team responded with a letter of its own. “By way of background, Mr. Weinstein, like most people, is complicated and the trial did not fairly portray who he is as a person,” the letter reads. “His life story, his accomplishments, and struggles are simply remarkable and should not be disregarded in total because of the jury’s verdict…. Mr. Weinstein has tried in his life’s work, through charitable endeavors, to even the odds for people who were not always afforded equal opportunities.”

Photo credit: Stephanie Keith / Stringer, Getty