Harvey Weinstein's 23-year prison sentence was met with gasps in a New York courtroom Wednesday morning.
Now, as Weinstein plans his appeal and Los Angeles County begins extradition proceedings for its own prosecution, lawyers and victims' advocates say the harsh punishment signals an important shift in the legal landscape for sexual assault cases.
For the #MeToo movement, Weinstein's conviction last month for forcing oral sex on a young production assistant in 2006 and raping an aspiring actress in 2013 was already a vindication, after decades in which the powerful producer's attacks were an open secret in Hollywood. That and the tough sentence mean jurors will be more likely to listen to women, even when their allegations are old, and that judges will send a stern message when juries find the witnesses credible.
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