Supreme Court Denies R. Kelly's Child Sex Crimes Case Appeal — Details on His Release Date

Content Warning: This article mentions child sexual abuse.

Former R&B singer R. Kelly, who is also known as Robert Kelly, will remain imprisoned for quite some time after being found guilty of child sexual abuse.

R. Kelly is currently serving time in a federal prison in Butner, N.C. His October 2024 appeal of the case didn't turn out in his favor. So, when is his release date?

R. Kelly's release date could be as late as sometime in 2045. According to federal Bureau of Prisons records, despite his efforts for an earlier release, he will be eligible for release then.

In 2022, R. Kelly was sentenced to 20 years in prison for sex trafficking and racketeering, stemming from a case in New York in 2021. He was then sentenced to 20 years for child sexual abuse charges in Chicago and is serving the sentences concurrently.

The New York charges included racketeering and eight counts of violating the Mann Act, a federal law that criminalizes the transportation of women or girls for immoral purposes, such as prostitution or debauchery.

In 2024, R. Kelly and his legal team tried their case before the U.S. Supreme Court. In his claim, he stated that he was wrongfully convicted by prosecutors, claiming he was arrested after his charges had reached the statute of limitations.

R. Kelly told the court he was wrongly retroactively prosecuted under a federal law that passed in 2003.

On Monday, Oct. 7, the court declined to hear the disgraced songwriter's case and his challenge to a lower court's decision upholding his conviction by a federal jury.

R. Kelly's sentence came after years of allegations of childhood sexual abuse stemming from the 1990s. His 2022 trial revealed several times he allegedly used his power and influence to lure underage girls, many of whom were featured in Lifetime's docuseries Surviving R. Kelly.