{"id":163452,"date":"2024-03-20T06:40:37","date_gmt":"2024-03-20T06:40:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2024\/03\/20\/r-kellys-appeal-of-sex-trafficking-conviction-faces-doubts-in-court\/"},"modified":"2024-03-20T06:40:37","modified_gmt":"2024-03-20T06:40:37","slug":"r-kellys-appeal-of-sex-trafficking-conviction-faces-doubts-in-court","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2024\/03\/20\/r-kellys-appeal-of-sex-trafficking-conviction-faces-doubts-in-court\/","title":{"rendered":"R. Kelly’s appeal of sex trafficking conviction faces doubts in court"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

\n

A lawyer for R. Kelly struggled on Monday to convince a U.S. appeals court to overturn the former R&B superstar\u2019s sex trafficking conviction and 30-year prison sentence.<\/p>\n

Kelly, 57, is appealing his September 2021\u00a0conviction\u00a0by a Brooklyn, New York, jury on all nine charges he faced, including racketeering and eight counts of violating the Mann Act, which forbids transporting people across state lines for prostitution.<\/p>\n

His lawyer Jennifer Bonjean told the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that federal prosecutors failed to prove that the singer led a racketeering scheme where he recruited underage girls for sex and then violated several victims.<\/p>\n

\"\"
ARCHIVO \u2013 R. Kelly durante una audiencia en el Tribunal Penal de Leighton, en Chicago, el 17 de septiembre de 2019. (Antonio Perez\/Chicago Tribune v\u00eda AP, Pool, archivo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Questions from the three-judge panel in Manhattan suggested that argument might be a tough sell.<\/p>\n

\u201cDidn\u2019t the government prove that one of the purposes of this enterprise was to recruit girls so that Kelly could have illegal sexual activity?\u201d Circuit Judge Denny Chin asked.<\/p>\n

Bonjean said it did not do so by relying on evidence such as Kelly\u2019s employees passing out the phone number backstage of the singer, perhaps best known for the 1996 Grammy-winning smash \u201cI Believe I Can Fly.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was no evidence that anyone went out there saying, \u2018May I find out what your age is, are you underage, come back, we want to serve you up to Mr. Kelly.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Circuit Judge Richard Sullivan suggested that the ages of some accusers might have been obvious.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe appearance of these girls would be evidence enough, wouldn\u2019t it?\u201d he asked Bonjean.<\/p>\n

\u201cLooking young does not mean you know someone is a minor,\u201d Bonjean responded.<\/p>\n

\u2018NO WAY OUT\u2019<\/h2>\n

The panel\u2019s questioning of federal prosecutor Kayla Bensing was less pointed, as she spent three uninterrupted minutes recounting testimony from some accusers.<\/p>\n

Some of the government\u2019s 45 witnesses also testified that Kelly and his associates imposed repressive conditions, such as requiring that victims call him \u201cDaddy\u201d and get permission to eat or use the bathroom.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe jury was entitled to infer that Kelly and his inner circle knew what was going on,\u201d Bensing said. \u201cHe used the enterprise to make them feel like they were confined, and that they had no way out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kelly, whose full name is Robert Sylvester Kelly, is among the most prominent people convicted of sexual misconduct during the #MeToo movement.<\/p>\n

His conviction and\u00a0sentencing\u00a0followed two decades of misconduct accusations, which he has repeatedly denied.<\/p>\n

Other arguments in Kelly\u2019s appeal included that jurors prejudged his guilt, his lawyer was ineffective and the jury was improperly \u201cswamped\u201d by evidence of other alleged bad acts.<\/p>\n

Kelly was also\u00a0convicted\u00a0in September 2022 by a Chicago jury of child sex crimes and sentenced to 20 years in prison.<\/p>\n

But the judge there\u00a0added just one year\u00a0to Kelly\u2019s imprisonment, with the other 19 years overlapping the original 30-year sentence.<\/p>\n

Kelly has been behind bars since July 2019, now at the Butner, North Carolina prison that housed late Ponzi schemer Bernard Madoff. He will be 78 when eligible for release in 2045.<\/p>\n\n

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A lawyer for R. Kelly struggled on Monday to convince a U.S. appeals court to overturn the former R&B superstar\u2019s sex trafficking conviction and 30-year prison sentence. Kelly, 57, is appealing his September 2021\u00a0conviction\u00a0by a Brooklyn, New York, jury on all nine charges he faced, including racketeering and eight counts of violating the Mann Act, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":163453,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-163452","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment"],"yoast_head":"\nR. 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