- Lawyers for
Harvey Weinstein are appealing his New York rape conviction. - They say the judge who oversaw the disgraced movie mogul's case did not give him a fair trial.
- Weinstein is serving a 23-year prison sentence in New York and is facing more charges in LA.
Lawyers for Harvey Weinstein are appealing the disgraced movie mogul's rape conviction and have asked a New York appeals court to grant him a new trial.
The approximately 170-page appeal was filed in the New York Supreme Court on Monday.
In the court documents seen by Insider, Weinstein's lawyers argue that the Manhattan judge who oversaw the case did not give him a fair trial.
The attorneys said testimony from three women unfairly influenced the trial, and argue that one of the jurors was writing an autobiographical book about the "predations of older men against younger women," which they say could have caused her to be biased against Weinstein.
The defense also ruled that Weinstein's prison sentence was too harsh.
"The trial court's sentence reflects not on Mr. Weinstein, the man, and the conduct for which he was convicted, but on Mr. Weinstein the media villain," Weinstein's lawyers said in the appeal.
In a statement sent to Insider, Weinstein's publicist Juda Engelmayer called the conviction a "miscarriage of justice."
"The American criminal justice system was designed to convict defendants based on their conduct - not their general character," he said. "The trial court hurled this prized value of our judicial system out the window when it allowed the prosecution to put Mr. Weinstein's entire life on trial based on dubious allegations that had no relevance to the charged offenses."
Prosecutors will answer Weinstein's arguments, and a final decision on the appeal will be made by a judge.
Weinstein, 69, is serving a 23-year prison sentence in New York following a conviction of third-degree rape and forcible sexual assault of two women.
He's also facing sexual assault charges in Los Angeles, where officials are trying to have him extradited.