Disgraced singer and convicted felon R. Kelly has asked the Supreme Court to overturn his federal convictions on sex abuse charges, according to Billboard.
Attorneys for Kelly, 57, filed a petition on Monday, claiming that Kelly’s charges relating to sex crimes involving minors should have been barred by the statute of limitations, the publication reported. Kelly’s team is asking the high court to throw out an appeals court’s decision that ruled “no statute of limitations saves” Kelly from his convictions.
In the filing, Kelly’s attorney, Jennifer Bonjean, argues that a 2003 federal law that extends the statute of limitations in such cases could not be applied since he was charged with crimes that occurred in the late 1990s and early 2000s, according to Billboard.
“Retroactive application of the 2003 amendment not only fly in the face of congressional intent,” Bonjean writes in the filing. “It violates notions of fundamental fairness.”
A Chicago jury found Kelly guilty on six counts of federal child pornography charges in September 2022, according to Rolling Stone. The petition addresses those convictions, and is focused on a key witness, “Jane,” who testified that Kelly filmed his sexual encounters with her when she was only 14, Rolling Stone reported.
Bonjean’s petition contends that the limitations period ended in September 2009, when “Jane” turned 25. In legal documents, Kelly’s attorneys argue that the “defendant was not charged until more than a decade after the expiration of the statute of limitations under the applicable law at the time of the alleged conduct,” per Rolling Stone.
“This court has explained that the aversion to retroactive rulemaking is deeply rooted in our jurisprudence and embodies a legal doctrine centuries older than our Republic,” Bonjean’s filing reads, according to Billboard. “Elementary considerations of fairness dictate that individuals should have an opportunity to know what the law is and to conform their conduct.”
Bonjean, who has repeatedly proclaimed Kelly’s innocence, is the lawyer who successfully argued a 2021 case that overturned Bill Cosby‘s 2018 sex assault conviction, per Billboard.