Culture

R. Kelly Acquitted in Child Porn Trial

by Jordan Yerman | June 13, 2008 at 11:26 am

605 views | 40 Recommendations | 8 comments

After less than a day of deliberation, the jury has acquitted singer R Kelly of all charges of child pornography.

The jury of nine men and three women includes the wife of a Baptist preacher from Kelly's Chicago-area hometown, as well as a compliance officer for a Chicago investment firm and a man in his 60s who emigrated from then-Communist Romania nearly 40 years ago.

As they left the courtroom to deliberate, jurors took the sex tape at the center of the trial with them, and a monitor was set up in the jury room in case they wanted to review it.

Kelly is charged with 14 counts of videotaping himself having sex with an underage girl, who prosecutors say was as young as 13. If convicted, he faces up to 15 years in prison. He would also have to register as a sex offender in Illinois.

A key factor seems to be that the alleged participant in the sex tape (now in her twenties) denies that it was her in the footage.

Previous coverage here and here.

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Jarrett Martineau

flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 11:29 on June 13th, 2008

I'm shocked.

Amy Judd

flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 11:33 on June 13th, 2008

jordan, how can this happen!!!????

Critical Todd

at 11:38 on June 13th, 2008

I didn't see that coming.

generaldecay

flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 12:09 on June 13th, 2008

jordan, wow. I didn't even now the case was going. This is a surprising result, I'd say.

Jordan Yerman

at 12:20 on June 13th, 2008

I'm really surprised as well. Seems like it turned into a massive case of he-said they-said, with one of the they-saids denying even being in the video. But did R. Kelly have to show his own back to the courtroom to confirm or deny the presence of the mole? The story above doesn't say.

Gharlay

at 12:45 on June 13th, 2008

very weird

rpshen

flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 13:14 on June 13th, 2008

jordan, I like this story. It's good stuff. OMG! I can't believe it!

Jarrett Martineau

at 16:40 on June 13th, 2008

Hmm....

Leonard Cavise, a professor of law at DePaul University
who was skeptical of the prosecutors’ case, said the optimistic way to
look at the verdict was that “this is a victory for the concept of
reasonable doubt.” The jury, he said, “is saying, ‘We weren’t totally
sure it was the girl, we weren’t totally sure it was him.’ ”

The
negative way, Mr. Cavise said, would be this: “The jury gave him the
extra benefit of the doubt because of who he is, just like the O. J. Simpson jury.”