R Kelly jury deliberating verdict

[4me2]

R Kelly jury deliberating verdict

By Iain Mackenzie
Newsbeat US reporter, from court in Chicago


</B> The singer faces up to 15 years in prison if convicted


A jury in Chicago has begun considering its verdict in the child pornography trial of R&B singer R Kelly.
The 41-year-old star is charged with filming himself having sex with an underage girl.
If convicted, he faces up to 15 years in prison.
Lawyers spent Thursday summing-up evidence from the month-long trial.
A packed courthouse watched as each side presented its case.
Sex tape
The video is reported to have been made around 1998 when the girl was around 13 or 14 years old.
As its graphic scenes were projected onto a large display, Assistant States Attorney Robert Heilingoetter read out a list of the charges.
Afterwards, he reminded the jury that both of the film's participants had been repeatedly identified in court.
"During this trial we have heard from 14 people that personally identified (the girl). Twelve of them identified R Kelly."
That was disputed by the singer's legal team, who claimed the tape was a sophisticated fake, produced by individuals with a grudge against the star.
While the prosecution was methodical, the defence turned-in a more theatrical performance.
Witness attack
If it ain't him you can't convict


Sam Adam Jr, attorney


Using biblical references, attorney Sam Adam Jr attacked one witness, Lisa Van Allen, who claimed to have participated in threesomes with R Kelly and the underage girl.
"Second Corinthians 11, verse 14. And Satan shall come disguised as an angel of light.
"That is what she is. She is a liar. She is an extortionist."
Mr Adam asked the jury to consider why neither the girl nor her parents were giving evidence against R Kelly, or appeared to have taken any action against him.
"If this was really their daughter, if they saw what you just saw, we would not be having a trial.
"Any solid man in that family would have gone round there and broken his legs.
"How many of the family even came in here and said they confronted him. Zero."
Mole evidence
The defence also focussed on a mole which R Kelly has on his back.
Despite testimony by a forensic video expert that it can be seen on the tape, the singer's lawyers maintain the birthmark is not visible.
The singer's hits included I Believe I Can Fly and She's Got That Vibe


Mr Adam said: "The truth be told, there is no mole. That means one thing. It ain't him, and if at ain't him you can't convict."
In rebuttal, States Attorney Shauna Boliker urged the jury to base their decision on the video and not be distracted by side issues.
"It is concrete. It is here and it has got him on it with that child.
"This is not a who-dunnit. It is a he-did-it. He is the child pornographer."
The jury, which consists of three women and nine men have retired to consider their verdict. R Kelly, whose full name is Robert Sylvester Kelly, denies 14 counts of making and owning child pornography.



http://news.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/hi/en...00/7452177.stm

[karmasupra1984]

hasnt he had charges against him before like this or am i gettin him confused with someone else?

[burner1]

R&B star R. Kelly acquitted in child porn case


CHICAGO (AP) — For R. Kelly, six years of pretrial delays came down to an agonizing 10 minutes.
As a court official began slowly reading the verdict for each of the 14 counts of child pornography against him, the R&B superstar clutched the hands of his flanking lawyers. He bowed his head and shut his eyes tight, barely moving.
As the official got to the last few counts Friday and it became clear Kelly had won a complete acquittal, tears streamed down the Grammy-winner's face.
"Thank you, Jesus," he repeated, over and over again, said one of his attorneys, Sam Adam Jr.


It had taken a jury of nine men and three women around seven hours of deliberations to acquit the 41-year-old singer on charges of videotaping himself having sex with a girl who prosecutors allege was as young as 13.
After the verdicts were read, a visibly stunned Kelly dabbed tears from his face with a handkerchief as he stood up and hugged each of his four attorneys.


The South Side native, who had faced up to 15 years in prison had he been convicted, left the courthouse surrounded by bodyguards. He smiled and waved to dozens of cheering fans before climbing into a waiting SUV.
In the end, jurors said prosecutors didn't convince them that the female in the video was who they said she was.
"You want to be 100 percent sure it's Kelly and (the alleged victim)," one juror said. "What we had wasn't enough."
Another juror said prosecutors left too many questions unanswered.
"All of us felt very much the grayness of this case," he said.
None of the five jurors who spoke to reporters after the verdict wanted to be identified.


Kelly, who won the Grammy Award in 1997 for the song "I Believe I Can Fly" and whose biggest hits are raunchy ballads like "Ignition," didn't speak to reporters as he left.


But a spokesman released a statement saying Kelly always knew that "when all the facts came out in court, he would be cleared of these terrible charges. ... all he wants to do is move forward and put it behind him."
Kelly and the now 23-year-old alleged victim had denied they were on the sexually graphic videotape at the heart of the case, though neither testified during the monthlong trial.


Testimony throughout the trial centered on whether the R&B superstar was the man who appears the tape, and whether the female who also appears on it was underage.
The jurors — who deliberated for three hours Thursday after closing arguments and for about four hours on Friday — said they remained sharply divided as late as Friday morning. A vote they took just a few hours before the acquittal had seven jurors voting not guilty and five voting guilty. Of the 12 jurors, eight were white and four were black.
Several jurors said one weakness in the prosecution's case was that neither the alleged victim nor her parents testified.


One juror said he just was not sure the female was who prosecutors said she was or that she was a minor — noting her body appeared too developed. Another said that while he was convinced it was Kelly on the tape, he had doubts about the female.


Asked by a reporter after the trial who the female in the sex tape was if not the alleged victim, Adam responded: "If you find that out, let us know."
Without the alleged victim, the prosecutors relied in part on a star witness who said she engaged in three-way sex with Kelly and the girl.


Defense attorneys labeled that woman an extortionist, claiming she sought hundreds of thousands of dollars from Kelly in exchange for her silence and stole his $20,000 watch at one point. They also argued that the man on the tape didn't have a large mole on his back, as Kelly does.


Jurors said the much ballyhooed mole defense rarely came up in deliberations and played no role in their verdict.
The alleged victim's family also presented a puzzle for the jury; three relatives testified they did not recognize her as the female on the tape, while other relatives said she was on the tape.
Ed Genson, one of Kelly's attorneys, said prosecutors didn't have much of a case.
"As for the so-called key evidence, I think we refuted all of it," he said.
Assistant Cook County State's Attorney Shauna Boliker said she believed the female on the tape was a victim, not a pr0stitute as the defense had contended.
"This shows the world how difficult this crime is to prosecute," she said. "It also takes the soul of the victim, the heart of the victim."


Despite his legal troubles, Kelly — who rose from poverty on Chicago's South Side to become a star singer, songwriter and producer — still retains a huge following, and his popularity has arguably grown in recent years.
The singer has released more than half a dozen albums, most of them million-sellers. He's also had a multitude of hits and gone on tours. His recent efforts include "Trapped in the Closet," a multipart saga about the sexual secrets of an ever-expanding cast of characters.
Kelly has a new song, "Hair Braider," out now, and is due to release a new album in July

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