For Black women and activists, the R. Kelly verdict is ‘bittersweet’: ‘There’s so much damage that has been done’

Nonetheless, in gentle of the 2008 trial, Kelly’s accusers didn’t depend on a responsible verdict, mentioned Gloria Allred, who represented three survivors in Kelly’s New York trial, and referred to as the singer “the worst” sexual predator she has ever pursued in her 4 a long time as a girls’s rights lawyer. However regardless of all of the proof towards him, she mentioned a lot of his victims “have been holding their breath” when the decision got here in. “Due to what occurred in 2008, they couldn’t say, ‘Oh, it is a slam dunk, he’s undoubtedly going to be convicted’ — since you by no means know what a jury goes to do.”