The disgr@c£d R&B singer R. Kelly has been sentenced to 20 years in prison in a Chicago federal courtroom on Thursday, following his conviction last year, on charges of child p%rnogr@phy and enticement of a min%r.
Judge Harry Leinenweber said Kelly would serve all but one year of his sentence concurrently with a previous 30-year sentence for federal racketeering and s+x trafficking convictions in New York last year.
This means that Kelly, who is currently 56 years old, could be released from prison when he is approximately 80 years old. In a courtroom in his hometown of Chicago, a federal judge rejected prosecutors’ call to keep him locked up until he was 100 years old.
While the sentence may allow Kelly to live out the rest of his life outside of prison, the judge acknowledged the horrific nature of his crimes and the lasting impact they would have on his victims. “The nature of this offense is…horrific,” said Leinenweber. “He noted that Kelly’s s£x¥al ab¥se victims would s¥ffer from his crimes for the rest of their lives.”
The judge also considered the possibility that Kelly may not live long enough to complete his sentence, stating that he has a life expectancy of “not a hell of a lot more.”
Nonetheless, he made it clear that Kelly’s actions were reprehensible and that he needed to be held accountable for them. The sentence brings a measure of closure to the case and sends a message that s£x¥al ab¥se will not be tolerated in any form.
The sentencing hearing is the culmination of nearly three decades of allegations Kelly had s£x¥ally ab¥sed under@ge girls, accusations first laid out in the Chicago Sun-Times.
