R Kelly defence lawyer cites Martin Luther King during closing arguments in sex abuse trial
After presenting just five lack-lustre witnesses to testify in defence of R Kelly – compared to 45 for the prosecution – a lot was resting on his defence team’s closing arguments at the musician’s trial yesterday. And to that end, attorney Deveraux Cannick addressed the jury for about two and a half hours, name-checking Hugh Hefner, Mike Pence and Martin Luther King along the way.Cannick’s closing arguments pretty much echoed – although expanded on – what the defence team had said at the very start of their client’s trial: that Kelly simply lived a rock n roll lifestyle, and while his sexual kinks may seem unusual, they weren’t in of themselves illegal.