CHICAGO (CN) — The Seventh Circuit affirmed disgraced R&B star R. Kelly's 2022 criminal conviction on Friday, finding that Kelly's arguments to overturn the decision weren't persuasive.
The appellate panel that authored the opinion unanimously supported the jury's September 2022 ruling in Kelly's federal trial in Chicago, praising them as "even-handed." That jury found Kelly guilty of producing and circulating several sex tapes featuring girls as young as 14, and of enticing multiple teenage girls to sleep with him in the late 1990s and early 2000s. While Kelly faced 13 child porn and sexual misconduct charges, the jury only convicted him on six.
"An even-handed jury found Kelly guilty, acquitting him on several charges even after viewing those abhorrent tapes," U.S. Circuit Judge Amy St. Eve, a Donald Trump appointee, wrote in the 14-page opinion.
When Kelly brought his case before the Seventh Circuit for oral arguments in February, his attorney Jennifer Bonjean said his reported offenses against young women occurred in the 1990s and should have been considered time-barred years ago.
It's an argument Kelly made multiple times over the course of his Chicago trial, always unsuccessfully. St. Eve repeated Friday that the courts remain unconvinced.
She pointed out — as other federal judges and prosecutors have — that the relevant law covering sexual abuse of a minor was amended in 2003, before the statute of limitations expired on the sex abuse charges Kelly faced. Under the amended law, the statute of limitations extends through the life of the victim.
"The law does not support Kelly’s position," St. Eve wrote. "As a threshold matter, it is not unconstitutional to apply a newer statute of limitations to old conduct when the defendant was subject to prosecution at the time of the change, as Kelly was in 2003. Similarly situated defendants have argued the Constitution’s prohibition on retroactive punishment bars this sort of change — without success."
The appellate panel also rejected Kelly's attempt to overturn his 20-year sentence, which U.S. District Judge Harry Leinenweber handed down in February 2023. Kelly argued Leinenweber used "vague" reasoning to sentence him above the recommended guidelines for the charges on which he was convicted, essentially condemning the 57-year-old to die in prison.
Before the Seventh Circuit last February, Bonjean opined that Leinenweber may have relied on the belief that Kelly tried to cover up his purported sex tapes with minors, despite the Chicago jurors acquitting him of obstruction.
Once again, the Seventh Circuit didn't buy it.
"The [sentencing] transcript defies Kelly’s characterization, for the district court never relied on any obstruction of justice as relevant conduct ... . [T]he district court expounded on 'the seriousness of the offense,' Kelly’s 'history and characteristics,' and the prospects of deterring Kelly and protecting the public from similar offenses in the future," St. Eve wrote.
St. Eve also brought up what Leinenweber had called "the elephant in the room" — Kelly's prior 30-year sentence, stemming from a 2021 federal sex trafficking conviction in New York City. Though the district judge sentenced Kelly to an additional 20 years de jure, his de facto sentence in Chicago was for only one more year added to those 30 years. The judge allowed Kelly to serve the remaining 19 years concurrently with that sentence.
"Kelly’s nominal above-guidelines sentence cannot be fairly assessed without reference to its running concurrently with the New York sentence," St. Eve wrote. "What looks like 240 months for this Illinois conduct is, with that context, more like twelve."
St. Eve concluded the court's opinion by saying that even if Leinenweber had not allowed Kelly to serve his Chicago and New York sentences concurrently, the "horrific" nature of his crimes would have justified the decision.
"No statute of limitations saves him, and the resulting sentence was procedurally proper and — especially under these appalling circumstances — substantively fair," the judge wrote.
St. Eve was joined in her opinion by Chief U.S. Circuit Judge Diane Sykes, a George W. Bush appointee, and U.S. Circuit Judge Kenneth Ripple, a Ronald Reagan appointee.
Follow @djbyrnes1
Subscribe to Closing Arguments
Sign up for new weekly newsletter Closing Arguments to get the latest about ongoing trials, major litigation and hot cases and rulings in courthouses around the U.S. and the world.
