Supreme Court rejects R. Kelly’s appeal of federal sex crimes conviction
By John Fritze, CNN
(CNN) — The Supreme Court declined on Monday to hear an appeal from R. Kelly, who is currently serving a prison sentence for federal sex crime convictions.
Robert Sylvester Kelly was already serving a 30-year sentence for sex trafficking, stemming from a 2021 New York case, when he was convicted of child pornography in Chicago for which he was sentenced to 20 years in 2023.
Kelly told the Supreme Court 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. Federal prosecutors declined to respond to his appeal.
The high court issued a lengthy order list Monday, disposing of hundreds of cases on the same day the justices heard their first oral arguments of the new term.
‘Pharma Bro’ appeal also rejected
In another case involving a prominent criminal defendant, the Supreme Court declined an appeal Monday from “Pharma Bro” Martin Shkreli, who was fighting a $64 million court-imposed penalty for inflating the price of life-saving medications.
Shkreli raised prices for the medication Daraprim by 4,000% while he was head of Turing Pharmaceuticals. His conduct earned him the title of “most hated man in America” by multiple publications and the nickname “Pharma Bro” in the media.
Shkreli asked the Supreme Court to review an appeals court decision from earlier this year that upheld the penalty. He asked the justices to settle the question of whether courts may compel a defendant to “disgorge” unlawful profits when those ill-gotten profits went to others. Shkreli has argued the money went to his company.
The Supreme Court denied both appeals on Monday without explaining its reasoning and there were no noted dissents.
CNN’s Elizabeth Wagmeister contributed to this report.
This story has been updated with additional developments.
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