LOS ANGELES (AP) — Jurors started deliberating Friday within the Los Angeles rape and sexual assault trial of Harvey Weinstein, after a ultimate push from the prosecution.
“You’ve gotten irrefutable, overwhelming proof of the character of this man, and what he did to those ladies,” Deputy District Lawyer Paul Thompson informed the jurors in his rebuttal to the closing argument delivered by the protection a day earlier.
Thompson urged them to seek out the 70-year-old former film mogul responsible of the 2 rape counts and 5 sexual assault counts he is charged with.
The costs contain accusations from 4 ladies spanning from 2005 to 2013. The jury heard from 49 witness in additional than 4 weeks of testimony.
In his closing, Weinstein’s protection lawyer Alan Jackson emphasised the absence of bodily proof of the assaults, none of which have been reported to authorities till years later. He informed jurors two of the accusers have been clearly mendacity, and the opposite two had reframed “transactional” and “100% consensual” sexual acts with Weinstein as assaults after he turned a magnet for the #MeToo motion in 2017.
“Remorse shouldn’t be rape,” Jackson mentioned.
In his rebuttal, Thompson guided jurors again via the proof for every lady. He mentioned the protection failed to point out that any of the ladies had gained something “transactional” from Weinstein, or that that they had something to achieve by mendacity.
“The place is the proof that there’s any motivation,” Thompson mentioned, “aside from to get justice for being sexually assaulted?”
Superior Court docket Decide Lisa Lench gave the jurors ultimate directions then gave them the case. That they had just some hours to deliberate on Friday afternoon earlier than a weekend break.
Weinstein is already serving a 23-year sentence for a conviction in New York and might be sentenced to greater than 60 years in jail in California if convicted on all counts.
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