News Roundup

Published for NC Criminal Law on February 28, 2020.

As the Associated Press reports, movie producer Harvey Weinstein was convicted by a jury in New York this week of rape and sexual assault offenses against two women.  The verdicts, accompanied by several acquittals on other offenses including on the most serious charges Weinstein faced – two counts of predatory sexual assault, came after five days of deliberation by a jury that indicated at times through notes to the presiding judge that it may deadlock on some counts.  Weinstein was detained in custody following the verdict and is scheduled to be sentenced early next month, where he faces up to 25 years of imprisonment on the sexual assault offense and up to four years on the rape offense.  Other sexual assault charges are pending against Weinstein in California.  Allegations that Weinstein had engaged in a years-long pattern of sexual abuse in his position as a powerful Hollywood producer were widely seen as a touchstone moment in #MeToo movement when they became public in 2017.  Keep reading for more news. Lynching Hate Crime Legislation.  Time reports that this week the House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly to pass the Emmett Till Anti-Lynching Act, legislation that designates lynching as a federal hate crime.  More than 400 members of the House voted for the bill, which was passed by the Senate late last year where it was cosponsored on a bipartisan basis by the three African American members of the Senate, Kamala Harris, Cory Booker, and Tim Scott.  President Donald Trump is expected to sign [...]