R. Kelly Asks SCOTUS to Toss Conviction

Convicted sex offender R. Kelly wants out of prison and is asking the Supreme Court to make it happen. Lawyers for the singer serving mostly concurrent 30-year and 20-year sentences for sex trafficking and producing child sexual abuse material have filed an appeal with the Supreme Court, reports the Hill. In it, they argue that the 2003 law under which he was convicted in 2022 of producing child sexual abuse material and enticing minors for sex shouldn't have applied. R. Kelly's crimes occurred in the 1990s, well before the law expanded the federal statute of limitations for sex crimes involving minors, according to the appeal.

"Because Congress did not expressly state that the PROTECT Act should apply [retroactively] 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," the document reads, per Rolling Stone. It claims the statute of limitations for the various counts would've expired between 2005 and 2009, more than a decade before Kelly was charged. District and appellate courts previously rejected this same argument from Kelly, per the Hill. If the Supreme Court agrees to hear the case, it will be raised during its next session, beginning in October. (More R. Kelly stories.)