Harvey Weinstein Found Guilty. What's Next?

Harvey Weinstein was found guilty on two charges but acquitted on three of the more serious charges in a New York courtroom on February 23. He will be sentenced on March 11, facing five to 29 years in prison. He also awaits criminal charges of sexual assault in Los Angeles.

Michelle Madden Dempsey, professor of law at Villanova University's Charles Widger School of Law, says there are three main takeaways from this verdict. 

• Prosecutors were right to take this case to a jury, and even if the jury had acquitted, it still would've been an important "win" simply because it went to trial.

• The jury seems to have taken the case seriously and delivered a fair verdict.

• We can't read too much into this verdict (as far as #MeToo is concerned). When women and girls of color, socio-economically marginalized women and girls, prostituted people and others who lack relative structural power receive justice from the criminal legal system, then we can start to celebrate. That is to say, there's still a lot of work to be done before all sexual assaults are taken seriously in our criminal justice system.

Prof. Dempsey also says we shouldn't be too quick to assume that a social movement is driving this verdict.

"The social movement, I think, is driving prosecutors to take these cases to a jury—which is a good thing. But I think juries typically try to reach verdicts based on the fact and particular law of the jurisdiction in which the alleged offense occurred."