The disgraced R&B singer’s defence attorney, Jennifer Bonjean, has filed a petition to the Supreme Court, requesting to throw out his Chicago conviction for possession of child pornography and enticing minors to engage in sexual activity, claiming that the charges should be barred by the statute of limitations.
R. Kelly was already serving a 30-year sentence for sex trafficking, stemming from his 2021 New York case, at the time he was convicted of child pornography in Chicago for which he was sentenced to 20 years in 2023. He is also appealing the New York conviction, though that case is not part of the high court petition.
In the petition, Bonjean argues that the musician was wrongly retroactively prosecuted under a federal law – the PROTECT Act – which passed in 2003 and made the statute of limitations indefinite for sex crimes with minors.
Merits of the request aside (because I really have no clue) how does this possibly help him?
Does he think the entire world is just going to forget he was originally convicted? That we are just going to go “Oh – there’s that guy who wasn’t ever found guilty of looking at child porn and doing sex things with kids”?
Do people who are convicted of stuff then acquitted on technicalities really think that the public just forget all their past crimes because a piece of paper says “sorry – they were prosecuted one day too late”?
It would vacate his conviction and get him out of prison. His life after may not be great, but he still has money.
As for his future career, people tend to forget/ignore all of that anyway. Chris Brown savagely beat Rihanna nearly to death, and he still has no problems booking a tour. But even if it was still a thing, he’d just say (accurately, mind you) that it was all just a plan by his lawyers. It was the most effective way of getting him out of prison, and clearing his record.
They’re also a lot of work that is not public faced, producer, composing, writing, that if he still have contacts to work with he can do out of the public eye.
“It would vacate his conviction and get him out of prison. His life after may not be great, but he still has money.”
That I can understand – the getting out of prison part. (Sorry – I don’t pay any attention to most of this and really wasn’t aware he was in jail).
I mean, we’re seeing it live with Trump and his crimes. He’s been pre-forgiven on the basis that his convictions will get overturned on various technicalities despite the fact 12 jurors found he did that shit.
But (and I admit this is where my knowledge of what’s going on in the US gets a bit sketchy because I live in the UK and – okay – don’t care all that much) wasn’t Cosby’s conviction overturned on a technicality? And as far as I can tell he hasn’t regained his former glory and former status as “America’s Dad”?
I think that’s because R Kelly didn’t show a veneer of “Dad” to everyone for decades. Nobody wants to forgive that person, who they respected their whole lives, for making them believe he was awesome while he drugged and raped women.
Cosby will never have that love again.
Not defending him, but what ?
This isnt about his public opinion. It’s about freedom. He’d like to not be in prison.
As I said in another comment I hadn’t realised he was in prison. My level of interest in the lives of convicted paedophiles is – and this may not come as a surprise – very low, so I just thought he was trying to clear his name.
Most people have their own lives to worry about. Sure some people will cut him off but most don’t care. That’s way too much effort for a stranger.