Appeals court upholds R. Kelly's Chicago conviction for sex crimes
CHICAGO (CBS) -- A federal appeals court on Friday upheld disgraced R&B singer R. Kelly's conviction on federal sex crimes in Chicago, and his 20-year prison sentence, calling the punishment he faces "substantially fair."
The 7th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals rejected arguments from Kelly's attorneys that his indictment on child pornography and child enticement charges was filed after the statute of limitations had expired.
"For years, Robert Sylvester Kelly abused underage girls. By employing a complex scheme to keep victims quiet, he long evaded consequences. In recent years, though, those crimes caught up with him at last. But Kelly—interposing a statute-of-limitations defense—thinks he delayed the charges long enough to elude them entirely. The statute says otherwise, so we affirm his conviction," Judge Amy St. Eve wrote in a unanimous ruling by a three-judge appeals panel.
The judges also rejected Kelly's bid for a new sentencing hearing, after his attorneys had argued the 20-year term handed down by U.S. District Judge Harry Leinenweber was "unduly harsh."
"An even-handed jury found Kelly guilty, acquitting him on several charges even after viewing those abhorrent tapes. No statute of limitations saves him, and the resulting sentence was procedurally proper and—especially under these appalling circumstances—substantively fair," St. Eve wrote.
Kelly, 57, could seek a rehearing of his appeal before the full 15-judge panel of the 7th Circuit, or appeal directly to the U.S. Supreme Court.
In September 2022, a federal jury in Chicago convicted Kelly of six counts of child pornography and child enticement for videos he made of himself sexually abusing three teenage girls, including his 14-year-old goddaughter.
The same jury acquitted Kelly of seven other charges, including obstruction of justice, accusing him and two associates of rigging his 2008 child pornography trial in Cook County.
Kelly's crimes happened in the 1990s, when federal law allowed prosecutors to file charges up until victims turned 25 years old, but Congress passed a law in 2003 allowing charges to be filed up until the victim's death.
In their appeal, Kelly's attorneys argued Congress never meant for the law to be applied retroactively, claiming prosecutors should have charged her client no later than 2009, but prosecutors argued the statute of limitations was expanded long before it would have expired in Kelly's case.
The appeals court sided with prosecutors, finding "Congress has spoken clearly, instructing us to apply the statute across the board."
Meantime, Kelly is also appealing his conviction on racketeering and sex trafficking charges in federal court in New York. The jury in that case convicted him of running a criminal enterprise to sexually exploit young women and children.
Kelly was sentenced to 30 years in prison in the New York case, and most of his 20-year sentence in the Chicago case is running concurrently to that prison term.
The singer is serving his prison sentence at a medium-security federal correctional center in Butner, North Carolina, and is expected to be released on Dec. 21, 2045, when he would be nearly 79 years old.