The disgraced R&B singer’s defence attorney, Jennifer Bonjean, has filed a petition to the Supreme Court, requesting to throw out his Chicago conviction for possession of child pornography and enticing minors to engage in sexual activity, claiming that the charges should be barred by the statute of limitations.
R. Kelly was already serving a 30-year sentence for sex trafficking, stemming from his 2021 New York case, at the time he was convicted of child pornography in Chicago for which he was sentenced to 20 years in 2023. He is also appealing the New York conviction, though that case is not part of the high court petition.
In the petition, Bonjean argues that the musician was wrongly retroactively prosecuted under a federal law – the PROTECT Act – which passed in 2003 and made the statute of limitations indefinite for sex crimes with minors.
But (and I admit this is where my knowledge of what’s going on in the US gets a bit sketchy because I live in the UK and – okay – don’t care all that much) wasn’t Cosby’s conviction overturned on a technicality? And as far as I can tell he hasn’t regained his former glory and former status as “America’s Dad”?
I think that’s because R Kelly didn’t show a veneer of “Dad” to everyone for decades. Nobody wants to forgive that person, who they respected their whole lives, for making them believe he was awesome while he drugged and raped women.
Cosby will never have that love again.