In a recent move within the legal system, attorneys for R&B singer R. Kelly have submitted a petition to the U.S. Supreme Court requesting a review of the artist's conviction for federal sex crimes, as ABC7 Chicago reports. Kelly, convicted in Chicago on charges including production of child pornography and enticement of a minor, is currently serving a 20-year sentence.
According to WTTW News, Jennifer Bonjean, Kelly's defense attorney, argued that the statute of limitations on his charge had expired, highlighting that this is a pivotal issue that the Supreme Court should reassess. "This Court should grant review to reaffirm the long-standing principles that criminal limitations are to be liberally interpreted in favor of repose and that legislation is presumed to apply prospectively, regardless of Ex Post Facto considerations unless Congress expressly states otherwise," Bonjean wrote in the petition.
Kelly's legal team has been relentless in their pursuit of this line of argument, despite a rejection from the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals earlier this year. They maintain that the PROTECT Act of 2003, which eliminated the statute of limitations for child abuse cases, does not retroactively apply to Kelly’s offenses committed in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Bonjean's petition states, "the PROTECT Act did not extend the statute of limitations and (Kelly) was convicted of time-barred offenses."
The petition's details come after Kelly's conviction alongside two former associates for crimes related to the sexual abuse of minors. Despite his recent Chicago sentencing, R. Kelly had already been dealt with a 30-year prison term in a separate New York federal case; however, 19 of the Chicago sentence is set to run concurrently. The singer's scheduled release stands on Dec. 21, 2045, with current incarceration at a medium-security prison in North Carolina. The Supreme Court has not yet indicated whether it will take up the case.
