Court reverses Jussie Smollett’s conviction

The Illinois Supreme Court reversed the conviction of Jussie Smollett who was accused of filing false reports of a hate crime against him.

The incident at the center of the case happened in 2019 when Smollett said two attackers yelled racist and homophobic slurs before putting a noose around his next, WGN reported.

Smollett was convicted in 2021 of five counts of disorderly conduct for organizing the attack after testimony claimed he paid $3,500 to the two men, whom he knew, to attack him, WGN reported.

The “Empire” actor was sentenced to 150 days in jail, 30 months of probation and restitution of $130,000. He has served six days of the sentence. He was released pending appeals, The Chicago Sun-Times reported.

The Cook County state’s attorney had dropped the original 16 charges against Smollett after he performed community service and forfeited his $10,000 bond, but a special prosecutor stepped in and a grand jury restored the charges, The Associated Press reported.

Smollett said there was no hoax and he was a victim.

The actor appealed but the state appellate court upheld the conviction, telling him that no one told Smollett that he wouldn’t be prosecuted after accepting the first deal. But the state’s high court agreed with Smollett and reversed the conviction.

The court wrote: “Today we resolve a question about the State’s responsibility to honor the agreements it makes with defendants. Specifically, we address whether a dismissal of a case by nolle prosequi allows the State to bring a second prosecution when the dismissal was entered as part of an agreement with the defendant and the defendant has performed his part of the bargain. We hold that a second prosecution under these circumstances is a due process violation, and we therefore reverse defendant’s conviction.”

Special Prosecutor Dan Webb released a statement on the decision which said that the deal that Smollett had accepted was reached five months before Webb was appointed.

“We are disappointed in the Illinois Supreme Court’s decision today to overturn Jussie Smollett’s convictions and sentence, including the award of over $120,000 in restitution to the City of Chicago for its overtime expenses in investigating Mr. Smollett’s fake hate crime. We respectfully disagree with the Court’s factual and legal reasoning which upends long-standing Illinois precedent. Indeed, the Special Prosecutor’s brief to the Illinois Supreme Court was replete with Illinois case law that would not preclude a second, new prosecution following a dismissal without prejudice via nolle prosequi. Even the Illinois Supreme Court agreed in its opinion that its holding today was not explicit in earlier Illinois decisions,” Webb wrote.

“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.”

Previous coverage:

• Jussie Smollett asks Illinois court to overturn conviction on staging hate crime (Feb. 7, 2024)
• Jussie Smollett loses appeal in staged attack case; will be going back to jail (Dec. 1, 2023)
• Jussie Smollett’s attorneys seek new trial in actor’s hate crime hoax case (March 3, 2023)
• Jussie Smollett released from jail pending appeal (March 16, 2022)
• Jussie Smollett: ‘Empire’ actor sentenced to 150 days in jail, 30 months of probation (March 10, 2022)
• Jussie Smollett found guilty of 5 disorderly conduct charges (Dec. 9, 2021)
• Video shows Jussie Smollett still wearing noose when police arrived after alleged attack (June 25, 2019)
• Brothers who allegedly attacked Jussie Smollett sue his attorneys for defamation (April 24, 2019)
• All criminal charges dropped against actor Jussie Smollett, attorney says (March 29, 2019)
• Jussie Smollett indicted by grand jury on 16 felony counts (March 8, 2019)
• Brothers say they have ‘tremendous regret’ for role in Jussie Smollett case (March 1, 2019)
• Police to release surveillance video in Jussie Smollett attack, reports says (Jan. 30, 2019)
• Jussie Smollett won’t pay Chicago $130,000 for investigative costs, attorney says (April 5, 2019)

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