R. Kelly is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn his convictions for child pornography and solicitation.
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Kelly defies conviction
According to BillboardR. Kelly claims his case should fall within the statute of limitations.
The outlet reports that R. Kelly’s attorney filed a petition on July 29 asking the high court to throw out an April ruling that denied him relief from his 2022 convictions.
R. Kelly’s attorney Jennifer Bonjean said TMZ that the 2003 federal law extending the statute of limitations cannot be applied retroactively to his alleged crimes from the 1990s.
PEOPLE reports that Bonjean stated that Congress did not explicitly include a provision making this law applicable to crimes committed before 2003.
“Because Congress did not expressly state that the PROTECT Act should apply retroactively, and even rejected a version of the bill that included a retroactive provision, the PROTECT Act did not extend the statute of limitations and the defendant was convicted of time-barred crimes,” the petition said.
For context, Kelly’s team claims the statute of limitations has closed. However, prosecutors dispute this, citing the PROTECT ACT — a 2003 law that established an indefinite period for sex crimes against children.
According to PEOPLE, although Kelly’s team has filed an appeal, the Supreme Court may choose not to hear his case.
However, Billboard notes that like all Supreme Court appeals, R. Kelly’s case faces significant challenges. The high court receives thousands of petitions annually, but only agrees to hear a small percentage.
In a statement to Associated pressKelly’s attorney, Jennifer Bonjean, argued that charging him with leading the RICO enterprise from 1994 to 2018 was unfair because it involved individuals promoting his music and recruiting women and girls for illegal sexual activity.
“This was not a collection of people who had the purpose of recruiting girls for sexual abuse or child pornography. Whether they turned a blind eye, whether some of them suspected that some of these girls were minors, that is a totally different matter.”
Bonjean argued that if R. were charged in this matter, it would set a precedent for other organizations to be labeled as RICO enterprises.
“And when we get into that kind of territory, where we’re going to say this constitutes a RICO enterprise, well, we have a lot of organizations — we have a lot of fraternity houses — we have all kinds of organizations that will now become RICO enterprises,” she added.
More details on the R. Kelly case and trial
This week’s petition addresses just one of R. Kelly’s two convictions for felony abuse. The other conviction, a September 2021 guilty verdict on racketeering charges from New York prosecutors, carried a 30-year prison sentence and is currently under appeal in a lower appellate court.
Yahoo reports that R. Kelly, whose full name is Robert Sylvester Kelly, is currently serving a 30-year sentence in federal prison.
Per CNNThe R&B musician’s sentence stems from a sex trafficking conviction in New York in September 2021.
In 2022, CNN revealed that R. received an additional 20 years in federal prison after a second conviction in his hometown of Chicago. He faced multiple charges related to production of child pornography and inciting a minor to engage in criminal sexual activity. This new term was imposed while he was already serving his initial 30-year sentence.
RELATED: R. Kelly is appealing his September 2021 guilty verdicts on sex trafficking and racketeering charges
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