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Jurors in Harvey Weinstein’s Los Angeles rape and sexual misconduct trial have deliberated for a week and have yet to reach a verdict.
The jury of eight men and four women returned home Friday afternoon and will return Monday morning to continue their deliberations.
They must rule on two counts of rape and five other counts of sexual assault against the 70-year-old former movie mogul.
Jurors asked the court no questions that might have given them insight into the status of their jobs.
They got the case at the end of closing arguments on Dec. 2. They’ve been deliberating for 5 1/2 days, or about 24 hours total.
The only question asked, and the only time the lawyers returned to court all week, came on Friday morning when one of the five alternate jurors asked if he could be removed because of his travel plans. Weinstein’s lawyers objected, and the judge denied the request.
Weinstein has more than 20 years remaining in New York after appealing his rape and sexual assault convictions.
In California, he could get between 60 years and life in prison if he is convicted on all counts involving all four women he is accused of beating.
All four testified during the trial, along with four other accusers who testified for prosecutors in an attempt to show that Weinstein was prone to such behavior.
Prosecutors have urged jurors to end their “reign of terror” against a man they described as a “degenerate rapist”.
Weinstein’s lawyers argued that two of the women’s allegations were entirely fabricated after the #MeToo movement made Weinstein a target, and the other two reframed consensual sexual encounters as assault.
He pleaded not guilty and denies engaging in any non-consensual sexual activity.
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