R. Kelly appears during a hearing at the Leighton Criminal Courthouse, in Chicago, Ill., on Sept. 17, 2019.ANTONIO PEREZ/AFP/Getty Images
A federal appeals court on Wednesday upheld former R&B superstar R. Kelly’s sex trafficking conviction and 30-year prison sentence.
The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan rejected Kelly’s claims that federal prosecutors failed to prove he led a racketeering scheme where he recruited underage girls for sex and then violated several victims.
Circuit Judge Denny Chin said prosecutors offered “extensive evidence showing how Kelly ensnared young girls and women into his orbit, endeavored to control their lives, and secured their compliance with his personal and sexual demands through verbal and physical abuse, threats of blackmail, and humiliation.”
The appeals court also rejected several other arguments Kelly made, including that four jurors were biased against him and some evidence was admitted improperly.
Lawyers for Kelly did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The U.S. attorney’s office in Brooklyn did not immediately respond to a similar request.
Kelly, 58, had been appealing his September 2021 conviction by a Brooklyn, New York jury on nine charges, including racketeering and eight counts of violating the Mann Act, which forbids transporting people across state lines for prostitution.
He is known as a singer for his 1996 Grammy-winning smash “I Believe I Can Fly.” Kelly’s full name is Robert Sylvester Kelly.
