There are few high-profile criminal defendants as unsympathetic as Harvey Weinstein, the erstwhile Hollywood mogul whose alleged sexual misconduct against women was so pervasive that it was reportedly an open secret in celebrity circles. So the New York Court of Appeals' decision yesterday overturning his sex crime convictions in that state may have seemed to represent something deeper: backlash to the #MeToo movement, how powerful men are held to a less robust standard of justice, how we don't take survivors of sexual assault seriously.

In reality, it was about none of those things. It was actually about a criminal defendant receiving a fair trial—an uncontroversial premise in most cases. This case admittedly isn't like most cases. The premise should still be uncontroversial. ...

"We conclude that the trial court erroneously admitted testimony of uncharged, alleged prior sexual acts against persons other than the complainants of the underlying crimes," wrote Judge Jenny Rivera for the 4–3 majority ruling. "The only evidence against defendant was the complainants' testimony, and the result of the court's rulings, on the one hand, was to bolster their credibility and diminish defendant's character before the jury. On the other hand, the threat of a cross-examination highlighting these untested allegations undermined defendant's right to testify. The remedy for these egregious errors is a new trial."