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.

  • Nollij@sopuli.xyz
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    4 months ago

    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.

    • driving_crooner@lemmy.eco.br
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      4 months ago

      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.

    • Gabe Bell@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      “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).