R. Kelly

In February 2025, the Second Circuit upheld Kelly's conviction for racketeering and federal sexual offences. In June 2025, the Supreme Court declined to review his petition.

Kelly's lawyers sought his temporary release to home confinement, alleging that prison officials had sought to have him killed and that he had suffered medical retaliation. The judge denied the request, notably for lack of territorial jurisdiction to address the grievances.

Attribution

Directly implicated

Kelly was sentenced to thirty years in prison in the Brooklyn case, after the court heard from victims and considered the conduct established by the jury.

Attribution

Directly implicated

Following a federal trial in Brooklyn, Kelly was found guilty of racketeering and Mann Act offences. Jurors accepted the prosecution's account of an organised system using his associates to recruit, control and exploit victims.

State of the evidence

Established by a court

Attribution

Directly implicated

Federal prosecutors in the Eastern District of New York accused Kelly of running a racketeering enterprise for years that facilitated the sexual exploitation of women and minors, with underlying acts including child sexual exploitation, kidnapping and forced labour.

Attribution

Accused

The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the Chicago convictions. The US Supreme Court subsequently declined Kelly's petition.

The federal judge in Chicago sentenced Kelly to twenty years in prison: nineteen years were to run concurrently with the thirty-year New York sentence and one additional year consecutively.

Attribution

Directly implicated

The Chicago jury found Kelly guilty of three counts of producing child pornography and three counts of enticing a minor to engage in sexual activity.

Attribution

Directly implicated

Role of the person profiled

Protagonist not prosecuted

A second federal case, in the Northern District of Illinois, accused Kelly of producing and receiving child pornography, enticing minors and obstruction relating to his earlier trial.

Attribution

Accused

Cook County and then Hennepin County prosecutors dropped their state cases against Kelly, explaining that his lengthy federal sentences made additional trials of limited value in relation to their costs and the impact on complainants.

State of the evidence

Documented

Attribution

Accused

Chicago prosecutors charged Kelly with ten counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse involving four complainants, three of whom were minors at the time of the alleged acts.

Attribution

Accused

Following a trial lasting several weeks, a Cook County jury acquitted Kelly on all fourteen counts. The proceedings concerned, among other matters, identification of the people appearing in the video.

Course of the proceedings

1. Formally charged — Formal charge before the current outcome

After a sexually explicit video was provided to the Chicago Sun-Times and examined by authorities, Kelly was indicted on several child pornography counts in Illinois.

Attribution

Accused