A federal judge has reportedly decided to reject R. Kelly’s request to ban jurors who’ve seen Surviving R. Kelly from his Chicago trial.
According to NBC News, Kelly’s attorney Jennifer Bonjean told U.S. District Judge Harry D. Leinenweber for the Northern District of Illinois: “It would be impossible for anyone who saw any part of the series to separate what they saw on TV and in the courtroom.”
But Leinenweber disagreed, saying the series aired years ago and it wouldn’t “make sense” to prohibit someone from serving if they’d seen only seen part of it. Math is on Kelly and his legal team’s side, though. Juror questionnaires revealed just nine people had watched at least some of the docu-series, while 70 claimed they hadn’t.
R. Kelly Wants To Ban Jurors From Chicago Sex Crime Trial Who’ve Seen ‘Surviving R. Kelly’ Doc
Kelly, who was already sentenced to 30 years in a New York prison earlier this year, is currently facing additional charges in Illinois, including child pornography and obstruction of justice.
Lifetime debuted Surviving R. Kelly in 2019, opening the floodgates into the investigation that ultimately landed Kelly behind bars. After its debut, both the #SurvivingRKelly and #MuteRKelly hashtags were in heavy rotation as people learned more about the multiple sexual assault allegations he’s faced over the years.
Fuck r Kelly but that tactic they used to air a documentary before the trial is obviously a let’s convince everybody he’s guilty tactic it’ll obviously have a play in court on jurors emotions
exactly right. if they got him like they claim they do then they shouldn’t have to resort to railroading to take him down. r kelly isn’t a hill i’d want to die on but how doesn’t it “make sense” to eliminate jurors who saw an entire production with the expressed purpose of condemning him, when they’re expected to be impartial?
The documentary has been out for years at this point, and so has the negative press surrounding him and his trials, so there will be little he can do to change any opinion about him once the jury is formed because everybody already knows/has made up their mind. That being said the doc was made, because up until that point r Kelly had been getting away with everything, so people got fed up and decided to blow the whistle. He only has himself to blame in regards to his guilt
He got away with it before, he’s not going to succeed this time
Everybody knows you pee on people, bro. Get over it…