R. Kelly Takes His Case To Supreme Court To Overturn Sex Convictions

After an appeal in Chicago was denied, Kelly's lawyer, Jennifer Bonjean is taking her chance at the highest court in the land

On July 30, convicted recording artist R. Kelly had his attorney file an appeal with the Supreme Court on the federal sex crimes for which he is currently imprisoned.

According to CNN, Kelly’s defense attorney, Jennifer Bonjean, is asking that the Chicago conviction for possession of child pornography and enticing minors to engage in sexual activity be overturned due to the statute of limitations. Kelly is currently serving a 30-year prison sentence in North Carolina after being convicted of sex trafficking in his 2021 New York case. In 2023, the singer/producer was convicted in Chicago and sentenced to 20 years in prison. He is currently appealing the conviction he received in New York.

Bonjean states that R. Kelly was wrongly retroactively prosecuted under the PROTECT Act, which was passed in 2003, making the statute of limitations indefinite for sex crimes with minors. But, she says that the crime for which the singer was convicted took place in the 1990s before the law that expanded the statute of limitations passed.

“Defendant’s charges were time-barred,” it states in the petition. “Because Congress did not expressly state that the PROTECT Act should apply retroactivity and even rejected a version of the bill that included a retroactive provision, the PROTECT Act did not extend the statute of limitations, and Defendant was convicted of time-barred offenses.”

Kelly initially appealed the Chicago sentence, but it was denied by a Chicago federal appeals court earlier this year. It rejected the same argument that it was outside the statute of limitations.

Bonjean has been successful with appeals, winning comedian Bill Cosby a reprieve from prison after filing a successful appeal in 2021. She was able to win on an alleged legal technicality. The attorney also represents convicted entertainment executive Harvey Weinstein in his current appeal in Los Angeles.