R. Kelly’s child pornography conviction and his 20-year prison sentence has been upheld.
Kelly was convicted in 2022 on three charges of producing child sexual abuse images and three charges of enticement of minors for sex.
In an appeal Kelly argued Illinois’ old statute of limitations – which required prosecution of child sex crime charges within 10 years – should have applied, rather than the current law permitting charges as long as an accuser is still alive.
According to Sky News, his legal team also argued that charges involving one accuser should have been tried separately from charges arising from three other accusers due to video evidence at the centre of the Chicago trial.
Federal prosecutors said the video showed Kelly abusing a girl. The accuser, who retains anonymity, testified for the first time that she was 14 at the time of shooting the video.
The three-judge panel upheld the conviction and noted that jurors acquitted Kelly on seven of the 13 counts against him “even after viewing those abhorrent tapes”. They also stated that the tough sentence was appropriate due to the “horrid, horrible” nature of Kelly’s crimes.
Kelly’s lawyer Jennifer Bonjean told TMZ that the musician will now take his case all the way to the Supreme Court.
He also received a 30-year sentence in 2022 in New York for federal racketeering and sex-trafficking convictions – a sentence that runs concurrently with the one imposed in Chicago.
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