Lynn Hecht Schafran, Legal Momentum's Senior Vice President and Director of our National Judicial Education Program (NJEP), was interviewed by USA Today about singer R. Kelly's 30 year sentence following his conviction on nine counts of sex trafficking and racketeering. 

But Lynn Hecht Schafran, legal director of Legal Momentum, a longstanding legal advocacy organization for women, said the verdict and sentencing doesn’t mean other state and federal prosecutions pending against Kelly will not or should not go forward.

“Every victim deserves to have their voice heard and justice served in their individual case,” she told USA TODAY.

Schafran called the verdict a “step toward justice" and a possible signal that society “has reached a new stage of unwillingness to ignore the harm" Kelly and others have caused many young lives.

"The next stage is to hold the enablers accountable – Kelly did not hold all these young women in thrall, nor avoid accountability for his actions, by himself," she said.