Story at a glance
- Harvey Weinstein is awaiting sentencing on March 11 after being convicted of sex crimes.
- While dozens of women have accused him of sexual assault, the charges only pertain to two victims.
- Rose McGowan, who has accused Weinstein of raping her, addressed the conviction publicly for the first time.
More than 80 women — including actresses Rose McGowan, Gwyneth Paltrow and Ashley Judd — have publicly accused Harvey Weinstein of sexual harassment, assault and rape. Two victims received justice in court when the former Hollywood mogul was found guilty of sex crimes.
Others, however, may never see their day in court due to the statute of limitations on prosecuting sex crimes in many states. Rose McGowan, who has accused Weinstein of raping her, is one of them and was outside the court on Feb. 24.
“I will never have that kind of day in court, but what I can do is kind of an Annabella Sciorra, who is an incredibly brave woman who was also raped by Harvey Weinstein in the 90s, and her testimony was really vital to giving context that this is a long-standing pattern and it’s not something that just happened out of the blue,” McGowan said in an interview on Good Morning America the next morning.
McGowan said she could potentially speak in court if Weinstein is tried in Los Angeles. He has been charged with felony charges of forcible rape, forcible oral copulation, sexual penetration by use of force and sexual battery by restraint.
“For most of us, this is more justice than most will ever see and so it’s an incredible moment,” McGowan told GMA.
In an interview with ‘Good Morning Britian,’ McGowan called Weinstein’s conviction an “unbelievable achievement” and added”“If we do the math … [Weinstein] could be one of the biggest serial rapists in history, because he had a full machine set up only to rape … there was a rape factory, that was [his] business behind the scenes.”
So what does justice look like for a disgraced movie producer?
Weinstein awaits sentencing on March 11, where he faces up to 29 years in jail. Currently held in a prison ward at Bellevue Hospital Center, the New York Times reports Weinstein will probably not wait with the general population of Rikers Island, instead being sent to a special medical facility.
“We have an obligation to protect every prisoner irrespective of what they did and who they are,” Martin Horn, a former commissioner of the city’s Department of Correction, told the New York Times.
His lawyers have argued he needs extra protection at Rikers, which is known for incidents of violence, and will likely fight to extend that for the duration of his sentence.
Medical facilities are larger, with 10 cells on one block rather than nearly 30 in general housing. The New York Times spoke to an unnamed source who described it as “a little hotel, like your own little apartment,” with his own television, shower, bathroom and possibly a phone.
“There seems to be a Jeffrey Epstein influence here,” Joe Russo, president of the Assistant Deputy Wardens and Deputy Wardens Association, told the City, suggesting that Weinstein needed protection from himself as well as others.
Two correctional officers were charged after Epstein died by suicide in 2019 while in jail awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.
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