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R. Kelly, who is currently serving a 30-year sentence in North Carolina, wants out of prison. The R&B singer is doing time simultaneously for both his 2021 conviction of racketeering and violating the Mann Act as well as a 2022 conviction for making child pornography. Amid attempts to be pardoned by Donald Trump, he claims that he is not safe in prison, alleging there was a murder plot against him by prison officials that resulted in an alleged intentional overdose. Kelly’s lawyers request an immediate release to home detention, but prosecutors call the whole thing “fanciful” and “deeply unserious” ahead of a June 20 hearing. Below, a full rundown of Kelly’s recent attempts to escape confinement.
Kelly claims there’s a murder afoot.
On June 10, Kelly’s lawyers filed an emergency motion for his release, alleging that Kelly was being targeted for murder by prison officials. In their filing, Kelly’s team included a sworn declaration from Mikeal Glenn Stine that prison officials asked him to murder Kelly, per Variety. Stine, who is a leader in the Aryan Brotherhood and terminally ill, claims that prison officials told him that he would be released if he killed Kelly. Kelly’s team claimed they have evidence that prison officials violated attorney-client privilege by intercepting Kelly’s communications with his lawyers and alleged this constitutes motive. Kelly’s lawyers also claimed they know about a second member of the Aryan Brotherhood who was contacted to kill Kelly. Kelly’s attorney asked for the singer to receive a temporary furlough in home detention over the alleged plot. On the same day that he filed the emergency motion, Kelly was moved to solitary confinement for his safety, which prosecutors later argued showed that prison staffers “are receptive to Kelly’s concerns and interested in keeping Kelly safe,” per a June 16 report by the Chicago Sun-Times.
Prosecutors call it “deeply unserious.”
On June 16, prosecutors responded to Kelly’s claim of a murder plot, calling it “fanciful,” “deeply unserious,” and saying it “makes a mockery of the harm suffered” by victims of the “prolific child molester,” per the Sun–Times. Assistant U.S. Attorney Jason Julien wrote a 19-page brief responding to Kelly’s filing, claiming the judge does not have jurisdiction to remove Kelly from prison. “Imagine a scenario where any and every incarcerated criminal could go back to the criminal court(s) that imposed a sentence of imprisonment upon them, allege that they fear imminent harm and demand to be released from custody while the matter was investigated,” the brief says. “Every convicted murderer, rapist, and terrorist will have a newfound shot at freedom.”
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Kelly claims he suffered a forced overdose.
Following the prosecutors’ response, R. Kelly’s lawyers claimed on June 17 that he was given an overdose of medication by prison staff on June 13, per a filing obtained by The Independent. His lawyer claims that after Kelly was put in solitary confinement on June 10 with his anxiety medication, he stopped eating out of fear of being poisoned. Prison staff allegedly entered Kelly’s cell and forced him to take additional medication. At that point Kelly allegedly “felt faint.” According to the filing, “he was dizzy” and “started to see black spots in his vision.” He was brought to Duke University Hospital on the morning of Friday, June 13. Kelly’s lawyer claims “they gave him an amount of medicine that could have killed him,” that he hasn’t been getting his needed medication for blood clots, and that he now requires surgery. The filing then says the prison officials denied Kelly the surgery that doctors recommended and removed him from the hospital. He was then taken back to solitary confinement.
The hearing might make all this moot.
R. Kelly’s hearing is scheduled for Friday, June 20. At the hearing, U.S. district judge Martha Pacold will decide whether or not she even has jurisdiction over Kelly’s presence in jail. “Unfortunately, no court has the ability to enter an order freeing Kelly’s victims from the prison that Kelly put them in,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Julien writes in the brief.
