Federal prosecutors are claiming that R. Kelly is a “sadistic serial sexual predator” and are pushing for the disgraced singer to serve the rest of his life in prison.
The U.S. prosecutors in charge of Kelly’s 2022 conviction in Chicago on child pornography and enticement counts have presented a requested sentence of 25 years for the offenses, which they acknowledge is longer than what is advised by sentencing guidelines.
R. Kelly is now serving a 30-year sentence after being found guilty of comparable crimes in New York in 2021, and the government has further said that they would seek for his term in the Chicago case to start only after he has finished serving that sentence.
Kelly was referred to as “a serial sexual predator” who hasn’t expressed regret for his “sadistic” actions in the sentence proposal, which was submitted to the U.S. District Court on Thursday (February 16). According to the prosecution, Kelly “poses a serious danger to society.”
“The only way to ensure Kelly does not reoffend is to impose a sentence that will keep him in prison for the rest of his life,” prosecutors added.
Jennifer Bonjean, R. Kelly’s attorney, has responded by asking for her client to get a 10-year term to run concurrently with his New York sentence. She said that the 56-year-old crooner is already unlikely to survive his term because the average life expectancy for prisoners is 64.
The U.S. Attorney’s office’s stern proposal, according to Bonjean, was driven by race, he said, citing the large number of white rock musicians who haven’t even been tried despite having the same accusations made against them.
Prosecutors insisted that adding an extra 25 years to Kelly’s already lengthy existing sentence is a legitimate request in view of “the egregiousness of Kelly’s conduct” and his “intentional and prolific” exploitation of youngsters.
Three months after receiving his New York sentence, the “I Wish” singer was found guilty in his Chicago trial in September 2022 on six of the 13 charges he was up against. The state had also charged him with conspiring with his former business manager to rig his 2008 child pornography trial, but he had been exonerated on those allegations as well.
On February 23, a judge in Chicago will sentence R. Kelly.
Judge Harry D. Leinenweber on Thursday rejected the applications that his attorneys had previously submitted in an effort to have the conviction overturned or a new trial ordered.
