Six years of speculation and anticipation ended yesterday when a jury of nine men and three women acquitted singer R. Kelly on all 14 counts of child pornography charges.
Kelly, who faced up to 15 years if convicted on all charges, bowed his head during the ten minute reading of the verdict, while repeating “Thank you Jesus” over and over according to his attorney Sam Adam Jr.
The jury in the high profile case deliberated for just seven hours before delivering the verdict. For them, it came down to the state unable to prove its case beyond a reasonable doubt. According to an Associated Press report, several had doubts that the girl on the tape was who the prosecution alleged.
“You want to be 100 percent sure it’s Kelly and (the alleged victim),” one juror said. “What we had wasn’t enough.”
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Another juror, speaking for the rest of the panel said that “all of us felt very much the grayness of this case.”
One other juror who spoke to the press said the girl on the tape looked too “developed” to be a minor, while another was convinced the man on the tape was Kelly but was not sure about the woman—or girl—in question.
While speaking to the press, Kelly’s attorneys highlighted the success of their case, while saying the prosecution did not have much of one to begin with.
“As for the so called evidence,”Ed Genson told reporters, “we pretty much refuted all of it.”
Aside from the tape, the star witness for the state was a woman who alleged a three way sexual encounter with Kelly and the girl in question. However, defense attorneys painted her as a woman who had an axe to grind with the Pied Piper. They also claim she demanded thousands for her silence and stole a $20,000 watch from Kelly.
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One reporter asked Adam who the alleged victim was if it was not the girl prosecutors claimed. “If you find that out, let us know,” he replied.
On the heels of this victory, Kelly is set to release a new album in July.
