R. Kelly Appeals Federal Racketeering and Sex Trafficking Conviction

R. Kelly has appealed his September 2021 conviction for racketeering and sex trafficking, TMZ reports and documents viewed by Pitchfork confirm. In the appeal his attorneys claim that four jurors have since admitted to having decided his guilt before the official verdict, and that at least two of them watched the Lifetime docuseries Surviving R. Kelly. They also claim that some of the minor girls Kelly was accused of abusing were 18 years old when their sexual relationships started, and that evidence related to previous relationships and testimony from former employees should not have been admissible. Kelly is seeking a reversal of his conviction or a new trial.

Kelly was sentenced to 30 years in prison last June after his September 2021 in federal court in Brooklyn, New York. Earlier this year, Kelly’s sexual abuse indictments in Illinois were dropped, with Illinois State’s Attorney Kim Foxx citing the “extensive sentences” handed down in the Kelly’s federal case in New York. He was also sentenced to 20 years in prison in a separate federal child pornography case; he’s set to serve most of that time concurrent to his 30-year sentence for sex trafficking in New York.

When reached by Pitchfork, a spokesperson for the U.S. attorney’s office for the Eastern District of New York offered no comment about the appeal. Pitchfork has also reached out to R. Kelly’s attorneys, Jennifer Bonjean and Ashley B. Cohen, for comment.

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1 800 656 HOPE (4673)

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