R. Kelly’s lawyers might be hoping for a Hail Mary from Donald Trump, but one family is not so fast. The Savages, whose daughter, Joycelyn Savage, is an alleged victim of Kelly’s, have no intention of changing their tune for a discussion of clemency. What they are saying is the obvious: you can’t demand freedom when someone else is still not free.
Kelly himself, who is now serving a 30-year prison sentence for sex trafficking and child pornography, is angling for a presidential pardon from former President Trump. But this plea, Gerald Griggs, the lawyer for the Savage family, told TMZ, is like adding salt to a wound that’s not even starting to heal yet.
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The family continues to insist that Joycelyn, who they insist has been under Kelly’s mental and physical domination for years, is nowhere to be found. They haven’t spoken to her since talking on the phone for 90 seconds in a strained call in 2019. And all efforts to contact her since then have been through Kelly’s inner circle, not directly.
“We tried to contact Joycelyn when my father died. “We always have to go through Kelly’s camp,” Timothy Savage said in a 2021 interview. The few phone calls they got from him were rare treats and seemed “scripted,” not the natural, emotional connection they so craved, his wife, Jonjelyn, said.
Kelly’s legal team, meanwhile, has portrayed a dark portrait of his life in custody. They’ve also claimed that he’s the victim of a murder-for-hire scheme by prison staff and a terminally ill Aryan Brotherhood member. Allegations of forced medication and prolonged stints in solitary confinement complete a storyline designed to elicit sympathy and, some would say, make a pardon sound reasonable.
But the Savage doesn’t care about whether Kelly has suffered; as far as they’re concerned, his suffering doesn’t compensate for their daughter still missing. “None of that has any bearing on the fact that we don’t know where Joycelyn is or what type of condition Joycelyn is in,” Griggs stressed.
While Kelly’s lawyers may contend that new evidence could reverse his convictions, the Savages couldn’t care less about the legal minutia of a courtroom. For them, this was not a matter of legal maneuvering but was about a young woman they insist has been silenced and torn away from the people who love her most.
As the judiciary system gears up to hear arguments this Thursday, the question looms: Can someone ask for forgiveness while a family continues to beg for answers? For now, the Savages have said no. Not until Joycelyn is genuinely free.
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