The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday rejected the R&B singer’s claim that the statute of limitations had passed and instead affirmed his convictions, stating that “(f)or years, Robert Sylvester Kelly abused underage girls.”
R. Kelly
Attorney Jennifer Bonjean, seeking to reverse his 2021 convictions or to win him a new trial, tried to persuade three judges on the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan that prosecutors improperly used a racketeering statute written to shut down organized crime to go after the singer.
Minnesota Prosecutors Drop State Sex Charges Against R&B Singer R. Kelly, Citing Federal Convictions
The Hennepin County Attorney’s Office said in a statement Tuesday that it believes her and that Kelly would likely be convicted if tried, but prosecuting him on charges that had been dormant since being filed in 2019 wouldn’t make a difference now that Kelly’s federal convictions could keep him in prison for the rest of his life.
Robert Sylvester Kelly was transferred from the Metropolitan Correctional Center Chicago to the federal correctional institution in Butner, North Carolina, on April 19, Federal Bureau of Prisons spokesperson Benjamin O’Cone said Monday via email.
Kelly’s attorney Jennifer Bonjean on Thursday filed her notice with the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals. That move is not a surprise, as Bonjean last month noted her intent to appeal Kelly’s convictions on three child pornography and three child enticement charges.
‘I will never get back what he took from me’: Kelly's victim tells court
Federal prosecutors asked U.S. District Judge Harry Leinenweber to sentence Kelly to 25 years in prison to account for the “indescribable harm” he caused his victims, including his then-underaged goddaughter “Jane.”
“Plain and simple, Kelly does not comprehend that what he did was wrong," federal prosecutors said in a sentencing memo this week.
A federal judge has denied R. Kelly’s request for a new trial, just a week before he is set to be sentenced on child pornography charges following his conviction in Chicago last year.
R. Kelly has already been convicted in other jurisdictions and sentenced to decades in prison, with more time likely to be added during a sentencing hearing next month.
Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx on Monday announced her office will be dropping its case against Kelly — nearly four years after he was arrested and charged with multiple counts of sexual assault and abuse.
“Surviving R. Kelly Part III: The Final Chapter” is a two-part look at the legal fallout Kelly has faced.
R. Kelly’s onetime manager was sentenced Monday to a year in federal prison for calling in a shooting threat that halted a screening of a damning documentary about the R&B star.
Kelly’s attorneys on Tuesday filed the routine post-conviction motions asking a judge to either toss out the singer’s six convictions or grant him another trial, arguing prosecutors failed to prove their case and allowed a witness to provide false testimony.
Derrel McDavid on Monday filed an 18-page motion through his attorneys seeking a court order that would grant him the fees following what his attorneys called a “vexatious, frivolous, and bad faith” prosecution.
For survivors of sexual assault and their advocates, it has been a long road as a federal jury yesterday convicted singer R. Kelly of six counts of producing child pornography and enticing girls for sex. The conviction comes more than two decades after the crimes took place.
During the monthlong trial, jurors heard from R. Kelly’s goddaughter “Jane” and three other accusers — each of whom testified using a pseudonym — who described being sexually abused at the hands of the singer while they were underage.