The Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear an appeal from therecording artist R. Kelly, who claimed prosecutors “stretched” the law in securing racketeering and sex trafficking convictions against him.
Robert SylvesterKelly is serving a 30-yearsentence for those convictions.
Kelly, a Grammy-winning R&B songwriter, was convicted under the 1970Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt OrganizationsAct, often associated with efforts to take down the Mafia but that can also give prosecutors the ability to seek higher sentences in different types of cases.
Kelly’s defense attorneys told the Supreme Court that prosectors “stretched” the use of the act in how they defined the term “enterprise.” An enterprise for the purposes of RICO, Kelly told the high court, only exists if its members share a common purpose to engage in illegal conduct.
“To hold otherwise would mean that any rogue bad actor operating within a legal organization could be prosecuted under RICO as occurred here,” Kelly’s lawyer argued. “This scenario stretches the RICO statute beyond and contrary to its purpose.”
The 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattanruled against Kelly in Februaryand he appealed to the Supreme Court in May. Federal prosectors declined to respond. As is its usual practice, the Supreme Court did not explain its decision to deny the appeal.
The justicesturned away another appealfrom Kelly in the fall. In that case, Kelly had argued that he was wrongly retroactively prosecuted under a federal law that passed in 2003 and made the statute of limitations indefinite for sex crimes with minors.