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On Thursday, June 19, rejected an emergency motion filed for the release of R&B singer, R. Kelly - born Robert Kelly. Kelly's lawyer, Attorney Beau Brindley, filed the motion on June 17, claiming that the rapper's life was threatened in prison, citing a medication overdose he suffered earlier this month as a "murder plot," USA Today reports.
Brindley appealed for a temporary furlough for Kelly, who was serving a 30-year prison sentence in North Carolina's Federal Correctional Institute facility in Butner. Per PEOPLE, the rapper's sentencing started at Chicago's Metropolitan Correctional Center, from where he was transferred to Butner in April 2023.
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According to the US Attorney's Office, Kelly was arrested on July 11, 2019, and has been behind bars for almost 6 years now. His first trial was concluded in September 2021, finding him guilty on the RICO charges. A second trial against the rapper concluded in June 2022, convicting him of child pornography and obstruction of Justice, NPR News reports.
A Variety article reports that Judge Martha Pacold rejected Brindley's motion about R. Kelly, stating that the court "lacks jurisdiction over this matter". Pacold also wrote,
"Kelly has not demonstrated a legal basis for this court’s jurisdiction. Accordingly, his emergency motion is denied."
In addition to the emergency motion, Brindley's request for an urgent hearing scheduled for Friday, June 20, was also canceled.
R. Kelly's lawyer plans on filing a new motion after his emergency bid got rejected
After R. Kelly's emergency motion was rejected in court, Brindley issued a statement to Variety, claiming he plans on filing a new motion to vacate his convictions in Chicago and request an immediate release in light of newly-discovered evidence. Brindley said,
"We are not surprised by this ruling as we knew that technical jurisdiction would be a challenge under these circumstances. However, we had no choice but to act immediately given explicit evidence of a threat to Robert Kelly’s life."
A week before the motion was filed on June 17, Brindley had filed another motion on June 10, claiming to have evidence about a "murder plot". Per the media outlet, R. Kelly's counsel shared a sworn declaration from a terminally ill inmate of the Honey Love rapper. The inmate alleged that he was promised freedom in exchange for Kelly's murder.
The rapper's legal counsel added that the federal officials were working with the prison staff to silence Kelly. According to them, it was a retaliation after they learned that R.Kelly was going to expose them for violating attorney-client privilege by intercepting his communication with his attorneys to help convict the rapper.
Brindley's latest statement to Variety also mentioned,
"Mr. Kelly remains in prison with blood clots in his lungs, this threatens his life every minute that he is denied the surgical intervention (pulmonary embolectomy) that Duke University hospital doctors sought to perform, but were prevented from executing. The danger could not be more imminent."
According to PEOPLE magazine, Kelly's attorney is also working towards communicating with President Donald Trump to get a pardon or sentence commutation for the rapper.
