US court decision offers the disgraced former Hollywood mogul a slim chance of being granted a new trial.
Weinstein is jailed in California, where he was extradited last year and awaits trial on 11 charges of misconduct toward five women between 2004 and 2013.
(Mark Lennihan / AP)
New York state's highest court has agreed to allow Harvey Weinstein to appeal his rape and sexual assault conviction, offering the disgraced former movie executive a chance of being granted a new trial.
Chief Judge Janet DiFiore "granted leave to appeal" on August 19, the court wrote in a letter dated on Monday that was sent to Weinstein's lawyers and reviewed by the Reuters news agency on Wednesday.
The letter did not detail what grounds may have led to the decision and it has no bearing on further rape charges against him in California.
Upon weighing arguments from Weinstein's lawyers and prosecutors, the court can uphold the conviction or order a new trial. Last June, a lower appeals court upheld the conviction, rejecting arguments that the Manhattan trial judge made several errors that tainted the trial.
The bar for ordering a new trial is high, but Weinstein was "relieved at this decision," said one of his lawyers, Arthur Aidala, after speaking with his client in prison.
"He's hopeful that the court is going to find that he did not receive a fair trial and reverse his conviction. And, as he has consistently, he maintained his innocence," Aidala said.
READ MORE:Harvey Weinstein to be extradited to California to face rape charges
Weinstein, 70, a Hollywood power broker who produced "Pulp Fiction," "Shakespeare in Love" and "Gangs of New York," became one of the most prominent targets of the #MeToo and #TimesUp movements that alleged sexual abuse at the highest levels of corporate America, entertainment and the media.
In February 2020, a Manhattan jury found Weinstein guilty of raping a former aspiring actress and sexually assaulting a production assistant. A judge sentenced him to 23 years in prison.
Weinstein is jailed in California, where he was extradited last year and awaits trial on 11 charges of misconduct toward five women between 2004 and 2013.
Weinstein has pleaded not guilty to rape and sexual assault charges in Los Angeles.
Source: Reuters
LONDON: Former Finance Minister Ishaq Dar has filed an application in the Supreme Court requesting for an early hearing of the appeal which has been pending before the court since 2018.
Senator-elect Dar has filed the application through his lawyers. He had originally filed an appeal in 2018 against his declaration as a proclaimed offender by accountability court.
The latest application in the Supreme Court of Pakistan is requesting intervention by the apex court to consider his case on merit.
According to his lawyers, Senator-elect Dar was first "blacklisted" by the Directorate General of Immigration and Passports without any basis or justification on July 24,2018.
That step practically banned the passport authorities in Pakistan and the Pakistani missions overseas from issuing a passport to Dar.
Dar’s valid passport was then cancelled by Imran Khan's government on September 06, 2018. The action was taken despite Dar's written request for issuance of a requisite passport, being a necessity and a fundamental right for the purposes of travelling.
He maintained that it was a draconian step which violated his basic human rights.
The factum of cancellation of the passport came into Dar’s knowledge through media reporting on September 09, 2018, during his medical treatment in the United Kingdom.
"The cancellation of Dar’s passport was a violation of law and human rights by Imran Khan government as a result of which the Senator was stranded in the UK from September 2018 onwards, which made it impossible for Dar to travel to Pakistan even if his health condition had improved," Senator-elect Dar’s legal teams said.
In May 2022, Dar received his new passport in London which had been issued by Passport Authorities in Islamabad on April 26, 2022.
In a wrongful death case brought by the children of a couple killed in a rollover wreck of their Ford F-250, the defence lawyers refuted that the automaker and “its engineers acted willfully and wantonly".
In this March 29, 2011, photo, new 2011 Ford F-250 trucks are delivered to a dealership in Glbert, Arizona in the US.
(AP)
Ford Motors plans to appeal a $1.7 billion verdict against the automaker after a pickup truck crash that claimed the lives of a Georgia couple, a company representative has said.
Jurors in Gwinnett County, just northeast of Atlanta, returned the verdict late last week in the years-long civil case involving what the plaintiffs’ lawyers called dangerously defective roofs on Ford pickup trucks, lawyer James Butler Jr said on Sunday.
Melvin and Voncile Hill were killed in April 2014 in the rollover wreck of their 2002 Ford F-250. Their children Kim and Adam Hill were the plaintiffs in the wrongful death case.
“While our sympathies go out to the Hill family, we do not believe the verdict is supported by the evidence, and we plan to appeal,” Ford said in a statement to The Associated Press.
Butler said he was stunned by evidence in the case.
“I used to buy Ford trucks,” Butler said. “I thought nobody would sell a truck with a roof this weak. The damn thing is useless in a wreck. You might as well drive a convertible.”
In closing arguments, lawyers hired by the company defended the actions of Ford and its engineers.
The Michigan-based automaker sought to defend the company against accusations “that Ford and its engineers acted willfully and wantonly, with a conscious indifference for the safety of the people who ride in their cars when they made these decisions about roof strength,” defence lawyer William Withrow Jr said in his closing arguments, according to a court transcript.
READ MORE: Ford announces series of deals to hit EV production goals'Nearly 80 similar wrecks'
The allegation that Ford was irresponsible and willfully made decisions that put customers at risk is “simply not the case,” another defence lawyer, Paul Malek, said in the same closing argument.
Lawyers for the plaintiffs had submitted evidence of nearly 80 similar rollover wrecks that involved truck roofs being crushed that injured or killed motorists, Butler’s law firm, Butler Prather LLP, said in a statement.
“More deaths and severe injuries are certain because millions of these trucks are on the road,” Butler’s co-counsel, Gerald Davidson, said in the statement.
“An award of punitive damages to hopefully warn people riding around in the millions of those trucks Ford sold was the reason the Hill family insisted on a verdict,” Butler said.
READ MORE: Ford plant shuts down as Canada truck blockade hardens
Source: AP
