Update 11/21/2024: The Illinois Supreme Court on Nov. 21 overturned former “Empire” actor Jussie Smollett convictions.
According to the Chicago Tribune, the court found “that a special prosecutor’s decision to retry him violated his rights after the Cook County state’s attorney’s office previously dropped all charges against him.”
Smollett was released from prison after serving 7 days of his 150 day sentence.
“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 opinion read “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.”
Original report begins below:
Three years after actor Jussie Smollett claimed he was attacked by two Trump supporters who tied a noose around his neck before throwing bleach on him, Smollett has been sentenced for staging the alleged hate crime in January 2019.
Jussie Smollett’s fate sealed as he is sentenced after being found guilty of staging hate crime
As Mamas Uncut reported, in December 2021, Smollett was found guilty by a jury of falsely filing a police report, saying Smollett staged the racist and anti-gay attack on himself and lied to Chicago police about it. The two men hired to attack Smollett testified against him in court.
During the trial, prosecutors said, Smollett “exploited tense race relations for his own gain and paid the Osundairos [brothers] $3,500 to stage the attack so he could get attention.”
Prosecutor Dan Webb continued, telling the jury, “To outright denigrate something as serious, as heinous, as a real hate crime, to denigrate it and then make sure it involved words and symbols that have such horrible historical significance in our country was just plain wrong to do it and he did.”
Now Jussie Smollett has been sentenced to 150 days in jail, 30 months of felony probation, and he is ordered to pay restitution of more than $120,000 and a $25,000 fine for his crimes. However, just like Smollett has since day 1, he has maintained his innocence.
“Your honor, I respect you and I respect the jury, but I did not do this,” the actor told the judge, before turning to the court. “And I am not suicidal. And if anything happens to me when I go in there, I did not do it to myself. And you must all know that.”
According to CNN, before handing down the sentence, Judge James Linn spoke directly to Smollett, saying, “There’s a side of you that has this arrogance, and selfishness and narcissism that’s just disgraceful,” the judge said. “You’re not a victim of a racial hate crime, you’re not a victim of a homophobic hate crime. You’re just a charlatan pretending to be a victim of a hate crime, and that’s shameful.”
The two men Smollett paid to attack him worked with him on the hit Fox drama “Empire.” The judge continued to say that Smollett’s actions have shown his “dark side.”
Smollett’s attorney asked for the guilty verdict to be overturned and that he receive a new trial due to legal errors leading up to and during the trial. However, prosecutors called the argument meritless.
The judge agreed, denying the request for a new trial, recognizing that Smollett received a fair trial.