23 Years for Harvey Weinstein

“Harvey Weinstein, the once-powerful and internationally acclaimed Hollywood producer, was sentenced to 23 years in a New York state prison Wednesday following a conviction stemming from sexual-assault allegations that sparked the #MeToo movement,” reports Deanna Paul for the WSJ.

The judge said the sentence reflected evidence that Mr. Weinstein had sexually assaulted other women beyond the allegations he was convicted of.

“Although this is a first conviction, it is not a first offense,” Justice Burke said.

Considering unconvicted conduct in sentencing is highly controversial. We have not heard the last of this aspect of the case.

The Hollywood producer, who arrived by wheelchair, addressed the allegations for the first time in court, expressing “great remorse for all the women who are going through this crisis,” but not apologizing or admitting that he did anything wrong. He said the #MeToo movement had stripped men of due process and compared it to how communists were once treated.

“Now, there are thousands of men who have been accused of things that none of us understood,” he said.

Perhaps, Mr. Weinstein, but you are not one of them. Every man with a lick of sense has always understood that coercing women into sex was wrong, whether the coercion be physical force or abuse of power.