R. Kelly sentenced to 20 years in child pornography case

CHICAGO — A judge sentenced R. Kelly to 20 years in prison on Thursday after he was convicted last year of child pornography and enticement charges.

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The New York Times and The Associated Press reported that all but one year of the sentence would be served at the same time as a previous 30-year sentence handed down to Kelly, who was convicted of racketeering and sex trafficking charges in New York. He will be eligible for release from prison when he is about 80, according to the AP.

In September, a jury in Chicago found Kelly guilty of child pornography and enticement charges. Prosecutors had asked that the 56-year-old singer face an additional 25 years in prison, writing in a sentencing memorandum that Kelly “refuses to accept responsibility for his crimes.”

“To the contrary, Kelly brazenly blames his victims and argues that his abuse of 14, 15, and 16 year-old girls was justified because some of his victims as minors ‘wanted to pursue a romantic and sexual connection’ with him and others remained in contact with him as adults,” prosecutors wrote.

“At the age of 56 years old, Kelly’s lack of remorse and failure to grasp the gravity of his criminal conduct against children demonstrates that he poses a serious danger to society. Kelly goes so far as to insinuate that he—and not the young girls he abused— is the victim, because the federal government elected to prosecute him for egregious conduct that occurred throughout the United States for over 20 years.”

An attorney for Kelly admonished prosecutors in a written response filed in court, saying that the government sought “to inflame the passions of the public and the Court.”

“It is the government that fails to grasp that Kelly still enjoys a few constitutional and statutory protections that allow him to challenge the government’s take on the evidence and advocate for an appropriate sentence without being labeled a monster who has no remorse,” attorney Jennifer Bonjean wrote. “The jury that heard this case seemed to respect those basic principles of our criminal justice process. The prosecutors would be wise to take a lesson from the jury.”

In court on Thursday, Kelly’s victims asked that he be harshly punished, according to the Chicago Sun-Times. In a statement read in court, a woman who testified against Kelly under the pseudonym “Jane” said that she had been “permanently scarred by Robert,” the Sun-Times and the AP reported.

“Robert shattered me. I need closure. And I need Robert in jail for as long as the law will allow,” the statement read, according to the Sun-Times. She added, “When your virginity is taken by a pedophile at 14 ... your life is never your own,” the AP reported.

A federal jury in New York in 2021 convicted Kelly of heading a racketeering and sex trafficking scheme that for decades preyed on young women. Last summer, a judge sentenced Kelly to 30 years in prison for that case.

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