The US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit released its decision on Friday, Jan. 19, 2019, to uphold a lower court’s ruling that dismissed charges against Harvey Weinstein. The Court found insufficient evidence to support the sexual assault accusations brought against him by three women in 2015. In response, RAINN released a statement highly critical of how this decision has left survivors without justice and called on Congress “to finally strengthen sex offender registration laws” so that perpetrators like Weinstein cannot evade prosecution. RAINN’s Chief Strategy Officer, Jasmine Rand, noted that the decision in this case “leaves sexual assault survivors without justice and potentially allows serial predators to continue committing crimes.” She added that “this ruling underscores the need for Congress to finally strengthen sex offender registration laws so that perpetrators like Mr. Weinstein who have sexually assaulted multiple victims are not able to evade prosecution by moving from state to state or country to country.”
Rod J. Rosenstein, the United States Deputy Attorney General, submitted a statement following the decision in which he claimed that “the Department of Justice continues our work to ensure all sexual predators are held accountable for their crimes, and we appreciate the hard work of our prosecutors and agents. We will continue to pursue justice for survivors of sexual crimes, and we will not slow down or stop until the job is done.”
The controversy surrounding this decision comes from the fact that Weinstein originally faced five charges of predatory sexual assault in the first degree, three of which were dismissed by the same Court in 2018. The Court’s opinion argued that prosecutors had failed to provide sufficient evidence for conviction despite a video showing Weinstein assaulting a young model. According to state law, prosecutors must prove that attacks occurred without consent from alleged victims.
RAINN, the Rape Abuse & Incest National Network, is the nation’s largest anti-sexual violence organization. The friends and families RAINN serves are impacted directly by sexual violence, and RAINN also empowers survivors to help them recover as they seek justice, treatment, services, and prevention. RAINN operates the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 800.656.HOPE and the National Sexual Assault Online Hotline at rainn.org and online resources on its website rainn.