Nearly a Decade of Trials, Three Courtrooms, and Still No Verdict: The Complete Story of Jessica Mann and the Harvey Weinstein Rape Retrial Mistrial

Today — Friday, May 15, 2026 — a Manhattan judge declared a mistrial in the rape retrial of Harvey Weinstein, after the jury announced it was hopelessly deadlocked on the question of whether the disgraced Hollywood producer was guilty of raping Jessica Mann. It is the second time in less than a year that a trial centred on Mann's allegations has ended without a verdict. It is the third time she has taken the stand in a criminal proceeding against the man she accuses of violently raping her. And it leaves one of the most significant and painful stories of the MeToo era in a place that almost no one anticipated — unresolved, exhausting, and deeply contested. Here is the complete story.

What Happened Today: The Jury Deadlocks, the Judge Declares a Mistrial

The jury in Harvey Weinstein's retrial — comprising seven men and five women, or in some reports eight men and four women depending on the point in proceedings — received the case on Wednesday and began deliberating. On Friday morning, at 11:20 AM, they sent Justice Curtis Farber a note with one of the most consequential sentences in the entire case: "We the jury request to let the judge know that the members of the jury have concluded that we cannot reach a unanimous decision."

Justice Farber responded by reading the jury an Allen charge — a legal instruction specifically designed for deadlocked juries, directing them to continue deliberating, to listen to each other's reasoning, and reminding them that a unanimous verdict serves the interests of justice in a way that a hung jury cannot. "It wasn't meant to be easy," he told them. The jury returned to the deliberating room.

About an hour later, they sent another note. This time, the message left no room for ambiguity: "No one is going to change where they stand."

Farber declared a mistrial. The judge agreed with the defence's request — and over the prosecution's objections — ruling that it was evident the jury was "hopelessly deadlocked" and that instructing them to continue would be coercive. The trial was over. No verdict was reached.

After the proceedings, jurors who agreed to speak to the press described how the vote had stood. Nine jurors had wanted to acquit Weinstein. Three wanted to convict. Those three were all men of varying ages. The youngest juror — Sarae Perez, 25 — articulated the divide with precision. "I had a lot of sympathy for her," she said of Mann. "It all came down to the credibility of her testimony. The three thought her testimony was credible, they had no reason to doubt it. And then the rest felt certain things on the stand were a little performative or maybe evasive or lying, and we didn't know, so that created a level of doubt that really mattered when it came down to everything."

Who Is Jessica Mann? Her Story, in Her Own Words

Jessica Mann is 40 years old. She has spent nearly a decade of her adult life fighting for what she describes as justice — first in a criminal proceeding that ended in a conviction that was later thrown out, then in a retrial that ended in a mistrial, and now in a second retrial that has ended in the same outcome. That decade of courtrooms, depositions, cross-examinations, media coverage, and public scrutiny represents a toll that is almost impossible to articulate.

Mann has alleged that Harvey Weinstein violently raped her at a midtown Manhattan hotel weeks after they first met by chance at a party in Los Angeles, and that he sexually assaulted her weeks later in California. The incidents she describes took place in 2013. She was in her late 20s. He was one of the most powerful men in Hollywood.

What has made Mann's case uniquely complex — and what has formed the centrepiece of every cross-examination she has faced across three separate trials — is the fact that she continued to have consensual contact with Weinstein after the incidents she describes as rapes. The defence has used this repeatedly and aggressively, arguing that a victim of rape does not maintain ongoing contact with her attacker. The prosecution has argued, equally consistently, that the psychology of abuse, power, and self-protection makes continued contact not only plausible but common — that survivors often maintain contact with their attackers out of fear, professional vulnerability, or a complicated attempt to normalise what happened to them.

Mann has steadfastly maintained across all three of her courtroom appearances that the 2013 incidents were different from other encounters and happened against her will. She has faced, by any reasonable measure, one of the most brutal gauntlets of cross-examination seen in a modern American criminal trial.

The Full Legal History: From 2020 to Today

To understand how we arrived at today's mistrial, the legal history of Jessica Mann's case against Harvey Weinstein must be told in full.

The original trial in 2020 was one of the most watched in American legal history. Weinstein was tried on multiple charges relating to multiple accusers, with Mann's allegations forming one central pillar of the prosecution's case. The jury convicted Weinstein of third-degree rape involving Jessica Mann and of a first-degree criminal sexual act involving Miriam Haley. He was sentenced to 23 years in prison. The conviction was widely described as a watershed moment for the MeToo movement.

In April 2024, the New York Court of Appeals overturned Weinstein's 2020 conviction in a 4-3 decision that shocked legal observers and advocates alike. The majority held that the original trial judge had made a significant error by allowing testimony from women whose allegations were not part of the formal charges — a ruling that the dissenting judges described as a catastrophic setback for sexual assault victims and the MeToo movement. The conviction was vacated. Weinstein would have to be retried.

The 2025 retrial covered only the charge relating to Miriam Haley — not Jessica Mann's allegations. That trial produced a guilty verdict. Weinstein was convicted of sexually assaulting Haley and faces up to 25 years in prison for that conviction, though sentencing has not yet taken place. Separately, Weinstein has been serving a 16-year sentence following his 2022 Los Angeles conviction for raping Italian actress Evgeniya Chernyshova.

The 2025 case also ended in a mistrial on the Mann-related charge — the jury could not reach a verdict on that specific count. The decision was then made to retry just the Mann case separately, which is the trial that has concluded today with the second mistrial.

What Made This Trial Different

One of the most significant structural differences in this retrial, compared to all previous proceedings, was what the jury did not know. Unlike in the earlier trials, Mann's testimony this time was isolated entirely from the broader tapestry of sexual violence allegations that Weinstein has faced over the past decade. The jury was explicitly not informed that Weinstein had been convicted in Los Angeles in 2022 for raping a different woman, or that he had been convicted in the 2025 New York trial of assaulting Miriam Haley. The defence had argued successfully that this information would prejudice the jury against Weinstein on the Mann charge. The prosecution had to win on the strength of Mann's testimony alone — without the context of the wider pattern of behaviour that had formed such a significant part of earlier prosecutions.

This isolation may well have been decisive. Prosecutors could not present Weinstein's other convictions as pattern evidence. They could not draw on the accounts of additional women. The entire case rested on whether the jury found Jessica Mann credible — and nine of twelve did not, at least not to the standard of beyond a reasonable doubt.

The Prosecution's Response: Consulting Mann on Whether to Try Again

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg issued a measured but emotionally significant statement after the mistrial was declared. "While we are disappointed that the proceedings ended with a mistrial, we deeply respect the jury system and sincerely thank all of the jurors for their time and dedication," the statement read. "For nearly a decade, Jessica Mann has fought for justice. Over the course of many weeks during three separate trials, she relived unthinkably painful experiences in front of complete strangers. Her perseverance and bravery are inspiring to the members of my office, and more importantly, to survivors everywhere."

Bragg confirmed that his office is consulting with Mann about whether to bring the case for a third time. The decision ultimately rests with Mann as much as with prosecutors — a third trial would mean a fourth time on the stand, a fourth round of cross-examination, and another extended public ordeal for a woman who has already endured more of those than almost anyone should be asked to bear.

Outside the courthouse, Weinstein's defence attorney Marc Agnifilo expressed his own disappointment at the failure to secure an outright acquittal but said he was gratified that a majority of the jury had wanted to find Weinstein not guilty. He said he would implore Bragg's office not to bring the case again.

What It Means: Weinstein Remains in Prison

Despite the mistrial, Harvey Weinstein is not going free. He remains in prison in California, where he is serving his 16-year sentence for the Los Angeles rape conviction. He still faces sentencing for the guilty verdict reached in the 2025 New York trial on the Haley count — a sentence that could add up to 25 further years. The mistrial in the Mann case does not change either of those facts. Weinstein, 74 years old and in poor health, will remain incarcerated regardless of what happens next in the Mann case.

But the significance of the mistrial extends far beyond Weinstein's prison timeline. The question at the heart of this case has always been larger than one man's guilt or innocence on one specific charge. It is a question about what justice looks like for survivors of sexual violence — particularly when the nature of the relationship between victim and perpetrator, the power dynamics involved, and the psychological complexity of trauma all conspire to make a simple narrative of guilt impossible to establish beyond a reasonable doubt to twelve strangers in a jury room.

Jessica Mann: Nine Years of Extraordinary Courage

Whatever the legal outcome — whether Bragg decides to retry the case or not — the record of what Jessica Mann has done across nearly a decade of legal proceedings deserves to be stated clearly and without qualification. She came forward when coming forward cost women like her enormously. She testified in three separate criminal trials. She faced cross-examinations specifically designed to undermine her credibility, her character, and her account of events. She did so in public, under the scrutiny of global media coverage, while also living the rest of her life. She has not wavered from her account.

As DA Bragg put it: "Her perseverance and bravery are inspiring to the members of my office, and more importantly, to survivors everywhere." That is true regardless of what the jury's vote said about reasonable doubt. Legal outcomes and moral clarity are not the same thing — and on that distinction, the story of Jessica Mann has something important to say to everyone watching.

Sources:

1. Hanford Sentinel (Mistrial Declared — Hopelessly Deadlocked — Full Report) — https://hanfordsentinel.com/news/national/mistrial-declared-in-harvey-weinstein-nyc-jessica-mann-rape-trial/article_d0e46649-affc-5367-8518-3ca441ebcd0c.html
2. Union Bulletin (Mistrial — Allen Charge — Full Proceedings Report) — https://www.union-bulletin.com/news/national/mistrial-declared-in-harvey-weinstein-nyc-jessica-mann-rape-trial/article_f3ed8ec2-5437-567b-a3da-fab1caf065d9.html
3. Union Leader (DA Bragg Statement — Consulting Mann on Retrial) — https://www.unionleader.com/news/courts/mistrial-declared-in-harvey-weinstein-nyc-jessica-mann-rape-trial/article_7d7012b2-3164-488a-866d-3972134f5b8b.html
4. NZ Herald (Third Time on Stand — Global Coverage) — https://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/harvey-weinstein-mistrial-declared-after-jury-deadlock-in-jessica-mann-case/ZA2IXCDJGJANVMRXAHKBZKHBOU/