R. Kelly’s Lawyers Ask For Him To Be Released From Jail, Put On House Arrest
R. Kelly is currently behind bars in Chicago, Illinois awaiting his numerous trials. However, his lawyers are now asking that the Pied Piper of R&B be released due to the spread of COVID-19.
His lawyers stated in a recent court filing that the disgraced singer’s life is at risk behind bars due to the coronavirus pandemic, according to The Associated Press. The court docs also claimed “soap is hard to come by in the Metropolitan Correctional Center, with most of its 700 inmates held in small, two-man cells that make the kind of social distancing called for to thwart the transmission of COVID-19 impossible.”
Kelly’s attorneys are asking for him to instead await his trails at home while under house arrest.
On March 17, according to TMZ, his lawyers wanted to check on his well-being as well as discuss legal strategy. But when they arrived at the prison, they were denied entry due to the COVID-19 outbreak. The Bureau of Prisons in Illinois suspended visits in an effort to stifle the spread of the disease.
According to The New York Times, over 85,000 people in the United States are infected with the coronavirus and over 1,000 have died. There are over 2,500 reported infections in the state of Illinois alone.
For the latest on the coronavirus, check out BET’s blog on the virus and contact your local health department and visit the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website.
