R. Kelly Denied New Trial On Child Pornography Charges, His Lawyers to Fight Back
R. Kelly will be sentenced as scheduled the next week after being rejected a request for a fresh trial in his child pornography case in Chicago.
The disgraced R&B artist was found guilty on six of 13 counts in September 2022, including making child pornography and luring children into illegal sexual activity.
He was cleared of additional claims that he had rigged a 2008 state court trial involving the same child pornography allegations. Later, Kelly’s attorneys submitted papers asking for the conviction to be overturned or a new trial, but Judge Harry D. Leinenweber rejected both arguments on Thursday, February 16.
According to Billboard, Leinenweber determined in his written denial that federal prosecutors had shown “enough evidence to sustain a guilty verdict on all six counts Kelly was convicted of.”
One of R. Kelly’s victims, “Jane,” who testified that the singer taped their sex acts when she was only 14 years old, served as the centrepiece of his appeal. Due to Jane’s evident plans to pursue monetary recompense from Kelly if he were found guilty, his attorneys claimed that Jane’s testimony was “not true”
However, Leinenweber countered by saying: “Simply because Jane and her attorney considered the possibility of restitution does not mean she lied during her testimony. Jane’s testimony was that she was undecided. Her testimony was not that she was not intending to pursue restitution.”
R. Kelly’s legal team can still fight the conviction by filing a motion with a federal appeals court and eventually the U.S. Supreme Court, although their chances of victory look slim.
The 56-year-old will get a sentence on February 23 and might spend an additional 90 years behind bars.
He is already serving 30 years for separate sex trafficking crimes in New York, of which he was convicted in September 2021.
Source – Tru News Report
