There’s an old saying that “if a person didn’t have bad luck, they wouldn’t have any luck at all.”
Multiple Grammy Award Singer R. Kelly’s attempts to work around a New York law concerning the spread of herpes fell flat.
This sad excuse for an individual tried his best to have a charge dismissed in his child sex abuse/racketeering case, which dealt with him purposely giving at least two women and an underaged teen the sexually transmitted disease, herpes.
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Steven Greenberg, R. Kelly’s lawyer, offered a challenge to Section 2307, which has been on the books since 1943. In breaking down the law, if a person with an “infectious venereal disease” has sex with another person and does not inform them, it’s a crime.
Greenberg, being a lawyer, claimed the law was ancient and too broad to enforce. He even claimed it was unconstitutional.
R. Kelly Pleads Not Guilty To New Kidnapping & STD Transmission Charges (Exclusive)https://t.co/7wjr8ae9FD
— gurl talk (@gurltalk6) May 1, 2020
https://twitter.com/kelly_plea/status/1255314606152716288
I was on @CourtTV w/ @VinniePolitan discussing a question R. Kelly’s defense attorneys included about jurors’ personal experience with STDs.
This question is intrusive, but gauging the jury’s responses is a crucial part of the defense strategy. Full clip: https://t.co/NN9WYl7kuj pic.twitter.com/PJ2AlaSos9
— Joseph Marrone (@JosephMMarrone) April 23, 2020
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Judge Donnelly, the presiding judge, ruled that “Section 2307 survives rational basis review as applied to the defendant’s conduct. Public health is a legitimate state interest and rationally serves that interest by penalizing those who, like the defendant, have unprotected sex knowing they are infected with venereal disease.”
To place the icing on the cake, so to speak, Donnelly said the law was written for individuals “like R. Kelly” and that the law must stand because to protect the public from the spread of infectious diseases, this is the “core concern” of the statute.
This piece was written by Wayne Dupree on May 23, 2020. It originally appeared in WayneDupree.com and is used by permission.
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