Disgraced R&B singer R. Kelly was given a 20-year jail sentence by a US judge on Thursday for child pornography and other offenses, but he will spend the majority of it concurrently with a prior sentence.
Kelly, 56, is already serving a 30-year sentence after being found guilty of racketeering and sex trafficking by a Brooklyn jury in a previous federal trial.
The majority of the new sentence will be served concurrently with the previous one, with all but one year being completed at the same time, the judge in Kelly’s hometown of Chicago decided.
It’s a victory for the defense that Kelly will serve a maximum of 31 years in prison. In its sentencing memo, the defense argued that “a concurrent term is what fairness demands,” accusing the prosecution of going on a “hunt to ensure that Kelly never sees the light of day.”
Both of Kelly’s federal convictions are being challenged by his attorney, Jennifer Bonjean.
Six of the 13 counts brought against the artist Robert Sylvester Kelly in the Chicago trial—three of making child pornography and three of enticing a minor—led to his conviction in September 2022.
A federal jury cleared the singer, whose hits include “I Believe I Can Fly,” of the seven additional counts, including the accusation that he obstructed justice during a prior trial.
A jury found the singer not guilty in the 2008 child pornography case after Kelly and two former collaborators were accused of manipulating the proceedings.
The federal conviction in Chicago came one year after Kelly was convicted in New York of systematically recruiting teenagers and women for sex.
That verdict was widely seen as a milestone for the #MeToo movement: it was the first major sex abuse trial where the majority of the accusers were Black women.
It was also the first time Kelly faced criminal consequences for the abuse he was rumored for decades to have inflicted on women and children.
AFP