That Guardian article quotes from a note to Weinstein from his brother —
“U deserve a lifetime achievement award for the sheer savagery and immorality and inhumanness, for the acts u have perpetrated. Oh I forgot. They were all consensual. Then what are u in rehab for? Sex addiction. Don’t think so. You wouldn’t have harassment, assault and rape charges u have now received, from 82 women for active consensual sex.”
It can take a long time though, especially for high profile cases. Bill Cosby was convicted in April 2018, but not sentenced until September. So it was a valid question.
Sexual assault is bad. Rape is bad. Using your position to force women to either give in to your sexual advances or have their careers destroyed is bad. Decent people - and yes, that means “men” - don’t do those things. Ever. They have never been “acceptable”, even when the people doing them knew they could get away with them.
The fact that your “empathy has grown” and that your new “mission is to help people” does not absolve you from the bad things you’ve done. The fact that you’ve made a lot of good films means even less. You are not being unjustly persecuted here. You committed crimes. You are going to jail, probably for the rest of your life.
I’m sure that he’s used the casting couch a lot more than three times. And maybe, most of those times, while reprehensible, were nonetheless not reprehensible enough to justify 23 years. But the court wasn’t deciding on most of his occasions of being creepy. They were deciding on three specific instances that were, in fact, reprehensible enough to justify 23 years. And there were probably also more instances that were just as reprehensible, for which the court had no or insufficient evidence, but it’s pretty much moot now, given that he’s almost certainly going to spend the rest of his life in prison, and there’s very little that could be done, practically speaking, to increase that sentence.
Well, there is hope, actually. Extradition, bind him over. Send him on to his next Series of trials. Consecutive sentences are in the realm of possibility. I just hope he doesn’t die before he sees a hammer come down with another multi-decades-long sentence.
What I mean is that, for a man of his age, there is very little chance of a 23-year sentence being any different from a 50-year sentence. While it might be emotionally satisfying to sentence him to a bazillion years behind bars, he’s still going to get out when he dies.
What I mean is that, for a man of his age, there is very little chance of a 23-year sentence being any different from a 50-year sentence. While it might be emotionally satisfying to sentence him to a bazillion years behind bars, he’s still going to get out when he dies.
For someone with his ego, who has had the wealth and power to hold everyone to their knees for so long, I don’t discount the power of one humiliation after another.
The question is should CA prosecutors spend money on a prosecution if he’s likely to never spend a day in a CA jail if/when convicted. He’s 67 & has health problems, he’s likely not going to make 23 more years. Assuming enough time in the statue of limitations, I could see delaying trial/dropping charges until NY appeals play out.