Jussie Smollett‘s conviction in an alleged hate crime hoax was overturned on Thursday 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. This came after the original charges against him were dropped in March 2019, but the case was picked back up when the state conducted an independent inquiry with a special prosecutor. In December 2023, a state appellate 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.
In an opinion released on Thursday, 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 January 2019, Smollett told police he was attacked outside of his Chicago apartment building by two men who called him racist and homophobic slurs and placed a noose around his neck. After an investigation, the police alleged that Smollett had paid two acquaintances to stage the assault, and a grand jury charged him with a Class 4 felony for filing a false police report. In March 2019, all charges were dropped after the Cook County state’s attorney reached a deal with his defense team that included Smollett taking part in community service and forfeiting a $10,000 bond. However, following controversy over dropping the charges, the state of Illinois conducted a separate inquiry into the matter with a special prosecutor, Dan Webb, who then indicted Smollett again in February 2020. In November 2021, the trial against Smollett began, and he was found guilty the next month.
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.”
Besides “Empire,” Smollett is known for starring in “The Mighty Ducks” as a child and had roles in “Alien: Covenant,” “Marshall,” “The Mindy Project” and “Revenge.” Despite his legal issues, this year Smollett directed, co-wrote and starred in drama “The Lost Holliday” alongside Vivica A. Fox.
