Latest news with #prison
CBS News
9 hours ago
- Politics
- CBS News
Judge denies R. Kelly's request to be placed on home detention, amid claims of prison murder plot
A federal judge in Chicago on Thursday denied singer R. Kelly's bid to be released to home detention, ruling that she does not have the jurisdiction to rule on his attorneys' claims that federal authorities are plotting to kill him in prison. Earlier this month, Kelly's attorneys filed an emergency motion seeking his immediate release to home detention, claiming his life is in danger as he serves a 30-year prison sentence for various sex crimes. The motion claims Kelly's former cellmate at the federal lockup in Chicago conspired with prison officials to steal mail between him and his attorneys, and turn it over to prosecutors before his trial on child pornography charges, in order to pit Kelly's former girlfriend against him. Kelly's attorneys also claimed prison officials recruited a fellow prison inmate, who is a member of the Aryan Brotherhood, to kill Kelly in prison in North Carolina to prevent him from exposing the plot to steal his mail and turn witnesses against him. In addition to their motion asking a judge to place him on home confinement, Kelly's attorneys also made a public plea to President Trump to set him free. The federal judge now overseeing Kelly's criminal case in Chicago originally set a hearing for Friday, but on Thursday denied his motion, finding she does not have jurisdiciton to rule on his claims that the feds are plotting to kill him. U.S. District Judge Martha Pacold noted that, since he has already been convicted and sentenced, she has limited jurisdiciton over his case, essentially only if he is challenging his conviction or sentence. "Kelly is currently housed at FCI Butner, which is located in Butner, North Carolina—outside this judicial district," Pacold wrote. "Kelly has not demonstrated a legal basis for this court's jurisdiction. Accordingly, his emergency motion … is denied." In their formal response to Kelly's motion in court, federal prosecutors have called Kelly's claims of a plot to kill him "repugnant to the sentence that this court imposed for deply disturbing offenses." "Kelly refuses to accept responsibility for years of sexually abusing children and is using this Court's docket merely to promote himself despite there being no legal basis to be before this Court," prosecutors wrote earlier this week. Kelly's attorneys also have claimed that, since making his original emergency motion for release, he was given a life-threatening overdose of his medication by prison officials, and later removed from a hospital against his doctors' advice. Kelly, 58, was convicted in 2022 in Chicago of child pornography charges, accused of making videos of himself sexually abusing three teenage girls, including his 14-year-old goddaughter. Meantime, a federal jury in New York convicted Kelly of racketeering and sex trafficking charges in 2021, finding him guilty of running a criminal enterprise to sexually exploit young women and children. Federal appeals courts have upheld both convictions. Kelly was sentenced to 30 years in prison in the New York case, and most of his 20-year sentence in the Chicago case is running concurrently to that prison term. The singer is serving his prison sentence at a medium-security federal correctional center in Butner, North Carolina, and is expected to be released on Dec. 21, 2045, when he would be nearly 79 years old.
CBS News
10 hours ago
- Politics
- CBS News
Judge denies R. Kelly's request to be placed on home detention, citing lack of jurisdiction
A federal judge in Chicago on Thursday denied singer R. Kelly's bid to be released to home detention, ruling that she does not have the jurisdiction to rule on his attorneys' claims that federal authorities are plotting to kill him in prison. Earlier this month, Kelly's attorneys filed an emergency motion seeking his immediate release to home detention, claiming his life is in danger as he serves a 30-year prison sentence for various sex crimes. The motion claims Kelly's former cellmate at the federal lockup in Chicago conspired with prison officials to steal mail between him and his attorneys, and turn it over to prosecutors before his trial on child pornography charges, in order to pit Kelly's former girlfriend against him. Kelly's attorneys also claimed prison officials recruited a fellow prison inmate, who is a member of the Aryan Brotherhood, to kill Kelly in prison in North Carolina to prevent him from exposing the plot to steal his mail and turn witnesses against him. In addition to their motion asking a judge to place him on home confinement, Kelly's attorneys also made a public plea to President Trump to set him free. The federal judge now overseeing Kelly's criminal case in Chicago originally set a hearing for Friday, but on Thursday denied his motion, finding she does not have jurisdiciton to rule on his claims that the feds are plotting to kill him. U.S. District Judge Martha Pacold noted that, since he has already been convicted and sentenced, she has limited jurisdiciton over his case, essentially only if he is challenging his conviction or sentence. "Kelly is currently housed at FCI Butner, which is located in Butner, North Carolina—outside this judicial district," Pacold wrote. "Kelly has not demonstrated a legal basis for this court's jurisdiction. Accordingly, his emergency motion … is denied." In their formal response to Kelly's motion in court, federal prosecutors have called Kelly's claims of a plot to kill him "repugnant to the sentence that this court imposed for deply disturbing offenses." "Kelly refuses to accept responsibility for years of sexually abusing children and is using this Court's docket merely to promote himself despite there being no legal basis to be before this Court," prosecutors wrote earlier this week. Kelly's attorneys also have claimed that, since making his original emergency motion for release, he was given a life-threatening overdose of his medication by prison officials, and later removed from a hospital against his doctors' advice. Kelly, 58, was convicted in 2022 in Chicago of child pornography charges, accused of making videos of himself sexually abusing three teenage girls, including his 14-year-old goddaughter. Meantime, a federal jury in New York convicted Kelly of racketeering and sex trafficking charges in 2021, finding him guilty of running a criminal enterprise to sexually exploit young women and children. Federal appeals courts have upheld both convictions. Kelly was sentenced to 30 years in prison in the New York case, and most of his 20-year sentence in the Chicago case is running concurrently to that prison term. The singer is serving his prison sentence at a medium-security federal correctional center in Butner, North Carolina, and is expected to be released on Dec. 21, 2045, when he would be nearly 79 years old.
Times
13 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Times
Holloway review — six former inmates open up movingly about life behind bars
As proved by the four seasons and 130 episodes of HBO's In Treatment, there are few subjects more innately suited to wrenching emotional drama than a high-stakes therapy session. And the stakes rarely get higher than in this documentary, a moving film about a five-day group therapy session for six women who were inmates at Holloway prison in London. • Read more film reviews, guides about what to watch and interviews Shot in 2021 before the building's demolition, it has a deceptively simple format. The women are returned to the crumbling edifice, placed in a seated circle in the old chapel and, under the supervision of a trauma counsellor, asked to explore the often harrowing psychological consequences of the prison experience. The tension is in the women's initial denial and the tough carapace of their coping mechanisms. Two of the younger subjects claim that prison life was a 'walk in the park', with one, Sarah, saying that she won't be opening up to anyone in the group because of her trust issues. 'If I trust you then you can do bare shit to me, and I'm not on with that!' she says. Her journey, and that of the film, will be a gradual softening and a breaking open into sadness, understanding and, yes, trust. It's niftily co-directed by Daisy-May Hudson and Sophie Compton, who are savvy enough to include scenes of the women objecting to the camera and establishing exactly how they will tolerate regular film-making intrusions. Hudson made the tearjerking social drama Lollipop, which came out last week, and is swiftly establishing herself as a directorial powerhouse. Compton recently announced that male film critics are wholly problematic and that, hampered by their gender, they are simply unable to 'understand' films made by women. By some miraculous stroke of good fortune, however, this male critic seems to understand Holloway. Or at least he claims he does. Typical. ★★★★☆12A, 86minIn cinemas from Jun 20 Times+ members can enjoy two-for-one cinema tickets at Everyman each Wednesday. Visit to find out more. Which films have you enjoyed at the cinema recently? Let us know in the comments and follow @timesculture to read the latest reviews
Sky News
14 hours ago
- Politics
- Sky News
Daughter of human rights lawyer held in Iranian prison in area targeted by Israeli missiles begs for his release
The daughter of a human rights lawyer held in a prison located in an area targeted by Israeli missile strikes has begged for his release. Mehraveh Khandan's father, 60-year-old Reza Khandan, has been in Evin prison since December, serving a sentence of four years and one month for charges of "assembly and collusion" and "propaganda against the regime" for producing pins opposing the mandatory wearing of the hijab. The prison is located in Tehran 's district 3, which is subject to an evacuation order issued by Israel on Monday due to its military targeting the area with missile and drone strikes. After Donald Trump said the city should be evacuated "immediately", Mehraveh, 25, shared a tearful video on Instagram, asking: "How can he leave Tehran, he is in prison?" This is "one of the most helpless and hopeless times of my life", Mehraveh told Sky News. She said she was imagining her father sitting in prison and hearing the explosions nearby, without having a reliable source of information to find out what was going on, as he is only allowed access to information via Iranian state media. Mehraveh, who managed to speak to her father on the phone since, said he told her the explosions "reminded him of the Iran-Iraq war when he was a soldier". "I can imagine he was [scared]," she added after last talking to him on Wednesday morning. Mehraveh said she posted her video plea because it was "the only way we could raise our voice above the deafening noise of criminal rulers endlessly hurling taunts at each other". She hopes that pressure from the international community could force Iranian authorities to release her father, as permitted under Iran's wartime law. "The Islamic Republic regime has shown in times of crisis, it only resorts to increasing internal repression, but I hope this time they react to international pressure differently," Mehraveh said. Reza, along with other inmates in Evin prison, also wrote a letter to the authorities to ask for their release, saying that the prison lacked shelters and alarms to protect against missile and drone attacks. "Not releasing them from prison is putting their lives in danger," Mehraveh said. Knowing her father is being held in a place so vulnerable to strikes was bringing her "a lot of anxiety, sleep-related issues and trouble eating", she explained. "Although I live in a safe environment, I feel captured and trapped most of the time," said Mehraveh, who is currently in Amsterdam studying fine arts. Her mother, Nasrin Sotoudeh, 62, who is also a prominent human rights lawyer, was facing a lot of stress as she was trying to get her husband released. Their daughter is also "so worried" for her younger brother Nima, 17, who fled Tehran with Nasrin to escape the Israeli attacks. Neither Mehraveh nor her mother have been able to visit Reza in prison, and the one time Nima was allowed to, the teenager was "traumatised" after being "beaten by guards". Mehraveh said she doesn't think Iran would "disappear" her father right now, like what allegedly happened to a fellow Evin prisoner this week, but worries that his contact with the outside world, currently via limited calls within Iran, could be cut off by the prison. Reza had previously gone on hunger strikes to protest the arrests of political prisoners and the conditions at Evin prison, the same jail where British-Iranian mother Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe was held. Mehraveh said there is a bedbug infestation and a general lack of hygiene. "My father is also struggling with health issues, and his hospital transfer appointments have been cancelled repeatedly at the last minute because my father refuses to be handcuffed and wear the prison uniform," Mehraveh said.
The Sun
15 hours ago
- The Sun
R. Kelly claims his ‘life remains in imminent danger' as prison officials ‘refuse to give him meds' for blood clots
R. Kelly claims his "life remains in imminent danger every minute" as prison officials have continued to "refuse to give him medication" for blood clots. The U.S. Sun can exclusively reveal that the disgraced R&B singer, 58, who's in prison in North Carolina, has claimed he is still being denied blood thinners, despite his legal team's allegations that he has several blood clots, which had been diagnosed at Duke University hospital. 1 In a filing on Wednesday, his attorney, Beau Brindley, said he and Kelly's co-counsel had just met with the singer for four hours. In that conversation, Kelly's team claimed their client still hadn't been given life-saving medication after being diagnosed with blood clots last week. In the filing, his attorney said after returning "from the hospital with medically CONFIRMED blood clots, Mr. Kelly is still not getting his prescribed blood thinners." In the federal court filing, his team continued: "After the meeting and obtainment of a signed HIPAA waiver, counsel travelled to Duke University Hospital to seek medical documents that are quickly becoming critical. "We have confirmed Mr. Kelly's presence at Duke University Hospital. We have confirmed the overdose. We have confirmed the blood clots. "But we need the medical documents to support it, which require extensive bureaucratic procedural steps. Those were taken," the filing continued. As The U.S. Sun previously reported, Kelly was rushed to the hospital after allegedly being given an extra dose of his medication. Earlier this week, Kelly was hospitalized after overdosing on medication in prison. According to a filing by his attorney, the overdose occurred after prison staff at the Federal Correctional Institute Facility in North Carolina administered the medications. The musician, whose real name is Robert Sylvester Kelly, is currently serving a 30-year sentence following his 2021 conviction on racketeering and sex trafficking charges in New York. On June 10, Kelly was placed in solitary confinement and given anxiety medication, his attorney Beau B. Brindley stated. He was later administered additional medications and instructed to take them, according to court documents reviewed by The Sun. However, three days later, Kelly reported feeling "faint" and "dizzy." Kelly's legal team accused prison officials of punishing him with isolation after he filed an emergency motion. The singer reported seeing "black spots in his vision" before he passed out and was rushed to Duke University Hospital on Friday. While in the ambulance, Kelly claims to have heard one of the prison officers say, "This is going to open a whole new can of worms," according to court documents. Kelly's legal team claimed that his deteriorating health was caused by being administered dangerously high doses of medication. While hospitalized, medical staff discovered blood clots in Kelly's legs and lungs and planned to keep him for surgery, according to his attorney, Beau B. Brindley. However, prison officials reportedly removed Kelly from the hospital and returned him to the facility, placing him back in solitary confinement. Kelly's defense attorney filed a motion on June 10, asking for his immediate release to escape an alleged murder-for-hire plot by prison officials and another inmate.
