NEW YORK (AP) — Dozens more people were screened Thursday as potential jurors for Harvey Weinstein’s New York rape retrial as the selection process neared its end for the week.
The panel started taking shape Wednesday, when five women and four men were picked for the redo of the landmark #MeToo-era trial. They were chosen after several stages of screening and questioning, a multistep process that’s common for long felony trials in Manhattan. Weinstein’s retrial is expected to run at least through the end of May.
Over 140 prospective jurors were brought into court Thursday for the first stage of selection: a show-of-hands response to whether they had schedule conflicts or felt they couldn’t be fair and impartial because of the nature and news coverage of the case.
As in earlier rounds, about two-thirds raised their hands and were excused. Even one person who didn’t raise a hand soon had second thoughts, telling the judge — without other potential jurors in earshot — that she wasn’t sure she could disregard all that she’d read about the case over the years.
Ultimately, about 50 people advanced to the next stage, another round of standard questions about such matters as whether anyone was acquainted with potential witnesses or key locations in the case.
Jury selection will pause Friday in observance of Good Friday.
Weinstein, an Oscar-winning producer and onetime Hollywood power broker, is charged with raping two different women — an aspiring actor and a production assistant — on separate occasions. He also is charged with forcing oral sex on another woman.
Weinstein, 73, has pleaded not guilty. He says all his sexual experiences have been consensual.
After allegations about him emerged publicly in 2017 and fueled the #MeToo movement against sexual misconduct, Weinstein faced investigations and prosecutions in multiple places. The ex-movie mogul was convicted of rape at his first New York trial in 2020. Two years later, he was convicted in Los Angeles of a separate rape charge that he also denied.
Then his New York conviction and 23-year prison sentence were overturned by the state’s highest court last year. That reversal led to the retrial, where the charges and expected evidence differ somewhat from the original trial.
Prosecutors and defense lawyers are to choose 12 jurors and six alternates.
Judge Curtis Farber is overseeing the painstaking process: The nine jurors selected so far were whittled from roughly 140 people who went through initial screening earlier this week.
Prospective jurors can be excused for various reasons, ranging from language barriers to prior experiences with — or opinions about — people or issues in a case. Prosecutors and defense lawyers also get a limited number of chances to eliminate potential jurors without giving a reason.
