STORY: ASHLEY JUDD: "This today is an act of institutional betrayal."

Activists of the #MeToo movement blasted a decision by New York's highest court on Thursday to overturn the rape conviction of former Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein.

Here's actress Ashley Judd, one of Weinstein's accusers:

"I stand shoulder to shoulder with women who have bloody knees because male sexual violence may knock us down, but we get right back up."

The 4-3 decision by the state Court of Appeals marked a stunning reversal in one of the biggest cases of the #MeToo movement.

The court said the trial judge made a critical mistake by letting women testify that Weinstein assaulted them even though they were not part of the charges he faced.

The judge who wrote for the majority called it "an abuse of judicial discretion to permit untested allegations" and said the remedy was a new trial.

It will now be up to Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg to decide how to proceed.

His spokesperson said in an email:

"We will do everything in our power to retry this case, and remain steadfast in our commitment to survivors of sexual assault."

Here's Weinstein's lawyer Arthur Aidala:

"Because of this ruling, Harvey Weinstein will now be produced from where he is in upstate New York back down here to this courthouse [FLASH] and Harvey will, under this new ruling, be able to tell his side of the story"

Weinstein has been serving a 23-year prison sentence in upstate New York, after being convicted in 2020 of sexually assaulting a former production assistant in 2006, and raping an aspiring actress in 2013.

Even if he were not retried, Weinstein still faces a 16-year prison sentence in California after being convicted there for the 2013 rape of an actress in Los Angeles.

The judge who wrote the dissenting opinion said Thursday's decision marks a "disturbing trend" of overturning jury verdicts in sexual violence cases.

In 2021, Pennsylvania's highest court overturned the sexual assault conviction of disgraced comedian Bill Cosby... after finding that an agreement with a previous prosecutor should have prevented him from being charged a decade later.