R. Kelly's Chicago conviction to stand after high court rejects appeal

“He understands that this is a process, that the fight is not over and he’s optimistic that the truth will eventually prevail,” she said.

A federal jury in Chicago convicted Kelly in 2022 on child pornography charges for explicit videos he made of himself and his then 14-year-old goddaughter, “Jane.” Kelly was also found guilty of inappropriate sexual relations with Jane and two other teenage girls, “Pauline” and “Nia.” The jury acquitted Kelly on separate charges of conspiring to rig his prior Cook County child pornography trial.

Kelly abused the three girls in the 1990s, when the law allowed prosecutors to bring such charges until the victims turned 25. Congress in 2003 expanded the statute of limitations up until the victim’s death, but on appeal Kelly attorney Jennifer Bonjean argued lawmakers never intended that amendment to apply retroactively. Prosecutors could not have brought these charges any later than 2009, she said.

Kelly is also appealing his conviction in a separate federal case out of New York, where a jury found him guilty of broad racketeering charges. He was sentenced to 30 years in the case; most of his prison term for the Chicago conviction is to be served concurrently.

During arguments in February on the Chicago case, St. Eve seemed skeptical, noting that no federal circuit has yet sided with Bonjean’s position.

Prosecutors argued that Congress expanded the statute of limitations long before it otherwise would have expired for Jane, Nia and Pauline. That’s a deadline extension, not a retroactive application of the law, they argued.

Case law overwhelmingly rejects Kelly’s claims, the appellate court ruled in Friday’s order.

“(It) is not unconstitutional to apply a newer statute of limitations to old conduct when the defendant was subject to prosecution at the time of the change, as Kelly was in 2003,” the ruling states.

The higher court also shot down Kelly’s argument that the counts involving Jane, including the child pornography charges, should have been tried separately from the rest.

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