Former R&B singer R Kelly, born Robert Sylvester Kelly, continues to serve a 30-year sentence in a federal facility. Kelly’s sentence stems from a September 2021 sex trafficking conviction in New York, per CNN. According to BBC, a Brooklyn jury had found him guilty of eight counts of sex trafficking and one count of racketeering. Reuters reported that his sex trafficking crimes violated the Mann Act. The act prohibits transporting people across state lines for prostitution.
CNN stated that then, in 2022, Kelly received another 20 years in federal prison after a second conviction in his hometown of Chicago. He was facing multiple counts of production of child pornography and enticement of a minor to engage in criminal sexual activity. He received the term while already serving the previous 30-year prison sentence.
Lifetime’s award-winning documentary series Surviving R Kelly examines the disgraced singer’s crimes. The docuseries comprises two seasons and reveals several women, the victims of Kelly’s sex crimes, speaking up about their experiences. Surviving R. Kelly is streaming on Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, and Lifetime.
Where is R Kelly now & what is his possible release date?
According to the federal prison records and CNN, R Kelly is now incarcerated in North Carolina’s FCI Butner Medium I. His transfer to the “medium security federal correctional institution” occurred in April 2023, following the second conviction. According to the outlet, the same federal facility once housed Bernie Madoff, who masterminded the biggest Ponzi scheme in history. The records show that Kelly’s possible release date is December 21, 2045.
BBC stated that some allegations against Kelly date back to the 1990s. He has denied all accusations, which span across two decades, against him. Then, in 2019, he faced two separate federal indictments in Brooklyn and Illinois. The accused’s New York trial began in August 2021. A Brooklyn jury finally convicted him in September on eight counts of sex trafficking and one count of racketeering. He received a 30-year prison sentence in June 2022.
Per the outlet, District Judge Ann Donnelly stated that R Kelly had used sex as a way to compel his victims to do atrocious things. Judge Donnelly also accused him of burdening his victims with sexually transmitted diseases. She added that the singer had an “indifference to human suffering” and “taught them that love is enslavement and violence.” The singer’s abuse victims addressed him in court and told him that he “destroyed so many people’s lives.”
Then, in August 2022, Kelly stood a second federal trial in Chicago. He was facing three counts of production of child pornography and three counts of enticement of a minor to engage in criminal sexual activity, per CNN. BBC stated that a woman, who identified as Jane, testified during the trial, revealing that they had sex “hundreds” of times before she turned 18. Federal prosecutors showed a video of Kelly abusing Jane, who was only a teenager at the time.
Jurors found R Kelly guilty of six counts in September 2022, and the following February, he received a 20-year prison sentence. The judge who handed him the sentence added one year to the convict’s previous sentence. He will serve the remainder of the 19 years simultaneously with the already existing 30-year term. Additionally, the former singer now faces sexual misconduct charges in Minnesota.
The Guardian reported that R Kelly appealed his 2022 Chicago conviction. However, a federal appeals court, with three judges in the panel, ruled earlier this April that he was correctly sentenced. The panel rejected his appeal, arguing that the jury had already acquitted him of seven out of the 13 counts he was facing despite “viewing those abhorrent tapes.”
Kelly’s appeal had argued that they failed to apply Illinois’ former and shorter statute of limitations on child sexual abuse crime prosecutions. He stated that the court had used the current law permitting charges while an accuser is still alive. In his appeal, he also claimed prosecutors should have tried him separately on the counts involving one accuser. Instead, he claimed they tied these charges to the counts from three other accusers.
According to AP News, R Kelly’s lawyer, Jennifer Bonjean, stated they will “pursue all of his appellate remedies until we free R Kelly.” Bonjean’s statement claimed they now intend to reach the U.S. Supreme Court and request a review. She also expressed her disappointment in the federal appeals court’s ruling, adding, “Our fight is far from over.” Moreover, Kelly has appealed his 2021 New York conviction.
Lifetime’s Surviving R Kelly gives an in-depth account of the Grammy-winning singer’s crimes. BBC stated that while accusations against Kelly have been around for quite some time, he faced indictments in New York and Chicago after the docuseries’ first season aired in 2019. A few weeks after the premiere, Kelly’s record company dropped him. This also resulted in the cancellation of his concerts in the US and New Zealand.
