CNN —
The Supreme Court on Monday refused to hear the appeal of R. Kelly, who is currently serving a sentence for a federal sex crime conviction.
Robert Sylvester Kelly, who was already serving a 30-year prison sentence for sex trafficking stemming from a 2021 New York incident, was convicted of child pornography in Chicago. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison in 2023.
Kelly told the Supreme Court that he was wrongly prosecuted retroactively under a federal law passed in 2003 that had an unlimited statute of limitations for sex crimes against minors. Federal prosecutors did not respond to his appeal.
The high court issued a long list of orders Monday, disposing of hundreds of cases on the same day the justices held their first oral arguments of their new term.
In another case involving a high-profile criminal defendant, the Supreme Court on Monday rejected the appeal of “pharmaceutical bro” Martin Shkreli, who was challenging a $64 million court-imposed fine for gouging the price of a life-saving drug. did.
While he was head of Turing Pharmaceuticals, Shkreli raised the price of the drug Daraprim by 4,000%. His actions earned him the title of “America’s Most Hated Man” in multiple publications and earned him the nickname “Pharma Bro” in the media.
Shkreli asked the Supreme Court to reconsider an appeals court ruling earlier this year that upheld the punishment. He asked the judge to resolve the issue of whether a court can force a defendant to “deprive” a defendant of ill-gotten gains if they go to another person. Mr. Shkreli claimed that the funds were paid to his company.
The Supreme Court dismissed both appeals on Monday without explaining why, and there were no notable dissents.
CNN’s Elizabeth Wagmeister contributed to this report.
This story has been updated with additional developments.
