Accused in 2020 of possessing child pornography and inducing underage girls to engage in sexual acts in the mid to late 1990s, R. Kelly is now asking the US Supreme Court to overturn his conviction. The disgraced singer is reportedly arguing that his alleged misconduct happened decades ago and his charges were the statute of limitations that had run its course.

Conversely, prosecutors counter-attacked with the claims that the 2003 law - the PROTECT Act - rendered the statute of limitations indefinite for child sex crimes. In 2023, a Chicago federal appeals court sentenced the singer to 20 years in prison on child sexual abuse convictions, with one year to run consecutive to the 30-year sentence previously imposed in the Eastern District of New York for sex trafficking and racketeering.

According to a Tuesday TMZ report, Kelly's attorney, Jennifer Bonjean, is again on the same track, arguing that the PROTECT Act's vast statute of limitations doesn't apply in the case against him as the Act wasn't passed until 2003 while the conduct for which he is serving now happened in the '90s.

About the PROTECT Act of 2003

The Department of Justice's official fact sheet celebrates the Act “as a historic milestone for our nation's children” as it “comprehensively strengthens law enforcement's ability to prevent, investigate, prosecute and punish violent crimes committed against children.” After it went into effect in 2003, it extended the statute of limitations indefinitely for alleged crimes.

R. Kelly's convictions and sentence

Born Robert Sylvester Kelly, the R&B singer was initially convicted in 2022 on three charges of producing child pornography and three counts of enticement of minors for sex. The four-week trial in Chicago revealed that Kelly had induced multiple minor girls to engage in sexual activity. As he abused his victims for years after meeting them in the late 1990s, he even recorded some of the abuse on videotape at times. Kelly reportedly also took measures to cover his abuse and silence the alleged victims.

He eventually appealed the conviction, stating Illinois' shorter statute of limitations should have applied to his case. However, the appeals court rejected his argument, labelling it an attempt by the singer to avoid the charges after "employing a complex scheme to keep victims quiet.

Way back in 2020, Kelly was convicted of six of 13 counts – three for child pornography and the remaining three for inducement counts. Along with his 20-year sentence, he was ordered to pay thousands of dollars in damages to the alleged victims. His 2022 Chicago conviction centred around video evidence reportedly showing Kelly abusing a then-14-year-old girl, per her first-time testimony. At the time, she identified only as Jane.

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