Jussie Smollett conviction overturned
Jussie Smollett's conviction of his staged attack on himself from 2019 is overturned.
- Published by David Knox
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Jussie Smollett‘s conviction in an alleged hate crime hoax has been overturned by the Illinois Supreme Court.
The Empire actor was convicted in December 2021 of five felony counts of disorderly conduct for allegedly staging a hate crime against himself in 2019 and was sentenced to 150 days in county jail, plus 30 months of probation and $130,000 in restitution.
Variety reports this came after the original charges against him were dropped in March 2019, but the case was picked back up when the Cook County state’s attorney asked the state to conduct an independent inquiry with a special prosecutor. In December 2023, a court rejected his bid for an appeal and it was ruled that he would have to complete his full sentence, six days of which he served before being freed pending appeal. Earlier this year, the Illinois Supreme Court agreed to hear his appeal.
Yesterday the Illinois Supreme Court found that the special prosecutor’s decision to retry Smollett violated his rights.
“We are aware that this case has generated significant public interest and that many people were dissatisfied with the resolution of the original case and believed it to be unjust,” the court’s opinion reads. “Nevertheless, what would be more unjust than the resolution of any one criminal case would be a holding from this court that the State was not bound to honor agreements upon which people have detrimentally relied.”
In a statement to press after the conviction was overturned, Webb said: “Make no mistake — today’s ruling has nothing to do with Mr. Smollett’s innocence. The Illinois Supreme Court did not find any error with the overwhelming evidence presented at trial that Mr. Smollett orchestrated a fake hate crime and reported it to the Chicago Police Department as a real hate crime, or the jury’s unanimous verdict that Mr. Smollett was guilty of five counts of felony disorderly conduct. In fact, Mr. Smollett did not even challenge the sufficiency of the evidence against him in his appeal to the Illinois Supreme Court.”
- Tagged with Empire
2 Responses
The liar got the Karma he deserved by losing his career.
You’re right that it’s his own fault, based on the reporting I have read. It was unfortunate though in my opinion, because he was really good on Empire and he has a nice voice. So, I still wonder what made him think he could fool the Chicago police and why he choose “ perpetrators” who could easily be traced back to him.
I do suspect he will be back at some point now that his legal troubles are behind him, as Americans love a comeback story in entertainment (politics) regardless of how bad someone behaved or is still behaving, perhaps when one of his former colleagues/bosses on Empire has the power to cast him in one of their projects.