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Singer R Kelly Appeals For Relief From All Charges In 30-Year Prison Term; Deets Inside
Singer and songwriter R. Kelly, who was sentenced to 30 years in prison due to various sexual assault misconducts, including crimes against minors, appealed the court to overturn his sentence.
Trigger Warning: This article has mentions of sexual assault, and sexual violence against minors
Former R&B star R. Kelly’s lawyer Jennifer Bonjean appealed to a US appeal court to overturn the Grammy winner’s 30-year prison sentence. R. Kelly, who received this sentence after his conviction in a New York court in 2021 was not present during the appeal.
What did R. Kelly’s lawyer say to the court?
Bonjean told the 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals that the prosecutors in Manhattan back in 2021 inappropriately charged Kelly with leading a RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization) enterprise. The singer was charged with leading this from 1994-2018 and alleged that Kelly recruited women to engage in illegal sexual acts and also produced child pornography.
“This was not a collection of people who had a purpose to recruit girls for sexual abuse or child pornography. Whether they turned a blind eye, whether some of them suspected that some of these girls were underage, that’s a whole different matter,” Bonjean told the three-judge panel. “And once we get into that sort of territory, where we’re going to say that constitutes a RICO enterprise, well we have a lot of organizations — we have a lot of frat houses — we have all types of organizations that are now going to become RICO enterprises,” she said.
Kelly was convicted of several charges of sexual misconduct during the #MeToo movement. During his trial, a lot of women came forward with horror stories about how they were forced to sign NDAs and were given punishments if they broke the rules. R. Kelly faced a total of nine charges including eight counts of violating the Mann Act which is a law prohibiting the transportation of people across state lines for prostitution.
What did the judges say during the appeal?
Kayla Bensing, who is an Assistant US attorney, talked about how Kelly had recruited people who put up a “system in place that lured young people into his orbit” and then he took over their lives. Bensing was also one of the prosecutors during the actual case, and when judge Danny Chin asked, "What evidence is there that staff who arranged these things knew that they were underage?” Bensing brought up various testimonies of women who said that she was asked her age when she was just 16. She also said that Kelly’s close circle knew that a lot of these girls were underage as they regularly booked flights for them.
“Members of the enterprise heard Kelly beat his girlfriends, they knew that Kelly was isolating his victims and they helped him do it, including by enforcing his punishments such as watching over them while they were confined to a bus for prolonged periods of time,” Bensing also added in her statement.
Kelly was adored by thousands of fans and sold millions of albums before his eventual downfall. His notable works include songs like I Believe I Can Fly and Trapped In A Closet. He has been behind bars since 2019 and the outrage against him has only grown over the years due to various other #MeToo cases coming to the forefront and due to the documentary, Surviving R. Kelly.
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