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Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein’s 2020 rape conviction was overturned Thursday by the New York Court of Appeals, reversing a case that helped launch the #MeToo movement.

The court suggested a retrial, ruling that the original judge had improperly allowed women to testify about allegations that Weinstein wasn’t on trial for.

Arthur Aidala, one of Weinstein’s lawyers, called Thursday a “great day for America because it instills in us the faith that there is a justice system” in a news conference, adding that from the beginning, his team “knew that Harvey Weinstein did not get a fair trial.”

The Manhattan district attorney’s office pledged in a statement to “do everything in our power to retry this case, and remain steadfast in our commitment to survivors of sexual assault.”

Weinstein, 72, will remain in prison, because he also faces a <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/arts-entertainment/2023/02/23/harvey-weinstein-sentence/" target=_blank>16-year sentence</a> on a separate case in California, where he was convicted in 2022 of rape, forced oral copulation and sexual misconduct. The New York reversal — a 4-3 decision — nevertheless outraged sexual violence survivors, their advocates and judges in the minority on the case.

In her dissent, associate judge Madeline Singas wrote that tossing out Weinstein’s conviction amounted to “whitewashing the facts to conform to a he-said/she-said narrative” and “continued a disturbing trend of overturning juries’ guilty verdicts in cases involving sexual violence.”

Once one of the most powerful people in Hollywood, Weinstein was accused in late 2017 of using his influence to assault and abuse women going back decades. Blockbuster articles in the New York Times and New Yorker were followed by a wave of accusations against other celebrities. What became known as the #MeToo movement eventually expanded beyond Hollywood, increasing public attention on sexual abuse and harassment and sparking prosecutorial efforts across the country.

Weinstein was originally <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/harvey-weinstein-sentence-trial-sexual-assault/2020/03/11/398f2cf6-630b-11ea-acca-80c22bbee96f_story.html" target=_blank>sentenced to 23 years in prison</a> in the New York trial. He was convicted of forcibly performing oral sex on a former production assistant, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/mimi-haleyi-harvey-weinstein-allegations/2020/02/19/516ee0de-5337-11ea-929a-64efa7482a77_story.html" target=_blank>Mimi Haleyi</a>, at his apartment in 2006; and of rape in the third degree for an attack on aspiring actress Jessica Mann at a hotel in 2013.

But like some other #MeToo-era cases, the trial also featured testimony from women whose accusations against Weinstein had not been prosecuted — known as Molineux witnesses after the landmark decision in People v. Molineux. Taralê Wulff, for example, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/29/nyregion/harvey-weinstein-trial-tarale-wulff.html" target=_blank>told jurors</a> that Weinstein had masturbated in front of her and raped her — alleged incidents for which he had not been charged.

In another dissent from Thursday’s reversal, associate judge Anthony Cannataro said the trial court was right to let those women tell their stories, so jurors could better understand Weinstein’s “intent and his knowledge of their lack of consent.”

But a majority of the appellate judges disagreed. “We conclude that the trial court erroneously admitted testimony of uncharged, alleged prior sexual acts against persons other than the complainants of the underlying crimes,” associate judge Jenny Rivera wrote in the ruling.

Attorney Gloria Allred, who represented Haleyi and two other witnesses in the case against Weinstein, said in a statement that her client would consider testifying again in a retrial.

The ruling caused anguish for women who spoke out against Weinstein and raised uncertainty about other high-profile cases where witnesses painted defendants as serial predators.

“Preparing for the trial took two years of my life. I had to relive the trauma of the assault every day,” Dawn Dunning, who testified as a Molineux witness in the New York trial, said in a statement after the reversal.

“Today’s decision is a major step back in holding those accountable for acts of sexual violence. Courts routinely admit evidence of other uncharged acts where they assist juries in understanding issues concerning the intent,” Douglas H. Wigdor, who has represented eight Weinstein accusers, said in a statement. “The jury was instructed on the relevance of this testimony and overturning the verdict is tragic in that it will require the victims to endure yet another trial.”

Ashley Judd, one of the first women to accuse Weinstein of sexual assault in 2017 and whose <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/arts-and-entertainment/wp/2018/05/01/ashley-judd-sues-harvey-weinstein-saying-he-torpedoed-her-career-after-she-refused-his-advances/" target="_blank">sexual harassment lawsuit</a> against Weinstein was revived by a federal appeals court in 2020, wrote on her <a href="https://www.instagram.com/stories/ashley_judd/3354063498147345392/" target="_blank">Instagram Story</a> that the court’s decision was “unfair to survivors. We live in our truth. We know what happened.”

During a news conference in New York on Thursday with Judd and other activists, #MeToo pioneer Tarana Burke said she wasn’t deterred by the overturning: “This moment and this decision actually means that we have a movement.”

Thursday’s ruling calls back to another high-profile case of the #MeToo era: the criminal trial against Bill Cosby, who was released from prison in 2021 after the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled that he was wrongly convicted of sexually assaulting a woman. The reversal was based on a <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/arts-entertainment/2021/06/30/bill-cosby-sexual-assault-conviction-overturned/" target=_blank>violation </a>of Cosby’s constitutional right to not incriminate himself, though his attorneys also argued that “prior bad act witnesses” unfairly prejudiced the jury during the 2018 trial.

At that time, prosecutors successfully filed a motion to invoke a legal rule known as the “doctrine of chances,” which allowed five more accusers to testify in a trial that centered on allegations by just one woman, Andrea Constand.

“The logic of the doctrine of chances says that the more times you get a similar kind of story coming forward from different people, the greater the likelihood that story is actually true,” said Stacey Hannem, a professor of criminology at Wilfrid Laurier University who co-authored<a href="https://nyupress.org/9780889778092/defining-sexual-misconduct/" target="_blank"> a 2022 book</a> that examines the trial outcomes of sexual violence cases that were first reported in the media and public spaces.

That reversal sets a precedent, Hannem said, adding that the close 4-3 ruling is indicative of other arguments that could arise about sexual assaults that occur outside of the statute of limitations, which often lack physical evidence.

“This case, I think is going to be one to watch,” Hannem said. “There seems to be a sense that … this deluge of evidence somehow is not fair to the accused, that he should be tried on the evidence of that one singular event only, and only on the testimony of that one singular woman he’s alleged to have assaulted.”

A lawyer for Evgeniya Chernyshova, who testified as a witness in Weinstein’s Los Angeles criminal case, said in a statement that his client is “obviously disappointed.”

“However, both she and I are confident that Weinstein’s Los Angeles conviction for rape will be upheld,” said the lawyer, David Ring.

Legal experts said the reversal in Weinstein’s case could also have consequences for former president Donald Trump’s hush money trial unfolding in Manhattan. Some said they expect the judge in that case — who has also been asked to consider what other allegations of wrongdoing against Trump could be brought up in court — to carefully review the Weinstein ruling.

Shayna Jacobs contributed to this report.

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