If the Court of Appeals were to rule in Weinstein’s favor, he would remain locked up because of his California conviction. Weinstein did not attend the arguments but was said to be monitoring a livestream from the state prison where he is incarcerated, Mohawk Correctional Facility, about 100 miles (160 kilometers) northwest of Albany.Allegations against Weinstein, the once powerful and feared studio boss behind such Oscar winners as “Pulp Fiction” and “Shakespeare in Love,” ushered in the #MeToo movement. His New York trial drew intense publicity, with protesters chanting “rapist” outside the courthouse.Weinstein maintains his innocence. He contends any sexual activity was consensual.His voice booming at times, Aidala argued that Burke swayed the trial with two key decisions: allowing three women to testify about allegations that weren’t part of the case, and granting prosecutors permission to confront him, if he had testified, about his long history of brutish behavior. Aidala also took issue with Burke’s refusal to remove a juror who had written a novel involving predatory older men.Weinstein wanted to testify at his trial, but opted against it because of Burke’s ruling that would’ve meant answering questions about more than two-dozen alleged acts of misbehavior dating back four decades, including fights with his movie producer brother and an incident in which he flipped over a table in anger, Aidala said.“We had a defendant who was begging to tell his side of the story. It’s a he said, she said case, and he’s saying ‘that’s not how it happened. Let me tell you how I did it,’” Aidala argued, adding that evidence of Weinstein’s prior bad behavior, “had nothing to do with truth and veracity. It was all ‘he’s a bad guy.’”Aidala also argued that other defendants in the state were now at risk of having their cases overwhelmed by extraneous evidence because “the floodgates have been opened” by the precedent of Burke’s rulings.The judges hearing Wednesday’s arguments volleyed between skepticism and sympathy for Aidala and his counterpart from the district attorney’s office, appellate chief, Steven Wu.
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