LOS ANGELES (AP) — Jurors on the Los Angeles rape and sexual misconduct trial of Harvey Weinstein have been deliberating for every week with out reaching a verdict.
The jury of eight males and 4 girls went house Friday afternoon and can return to renew deliberations on Monday morning.
They need to determine on two counts of rape and 5 different sexual assault counts in opposition to the 70-year-old former film magnate.
The jurors have had no questions for the court docket which may present perception into the standing of their work.
They obtained the case on the finish of closing arguments on Dec. 2. They’ve been deliberating for five 1/2 days, or about 24 hours whole.
The one challenge raised, and the one time the attorneys have returned to the courtroom in every week, got here Friday morning when one of many 5 alternate jurors requested if he might be excused due to journey plans. Weinstein’s legal professionals objected, and the choose rejected the request.
Weinstein nonetheless has greater than 20 years left on his sentence in New York after a rape and sexual assault conviction there that’s beneath enchantment.
In California, he might get 60 years to life in jail if he’s convicted on all counts involving all 4 girls he’s charged with assaulting.
All 4 testified in the course of the trial, together with 4 different accusers who testified for prosecutors making an attempt to point out a propensity for such acts by Weinstein.
Prosecutors urged jurors to finish the “reign of terror” of a person they known as a “degenerate rapist.”
Weinstein’s legal professionals argued that two of the ladies’s accusations are solely fabricated and two others reframed consensual sexual encounters as assault years later, after the #MeToo motion made Weinstein a goal.
He has pleaded not responsible and denied participating in any non-consensual intercourse.