Jussie Smollette Heads Back To Jail For Homophobic Racist Attack Hoax
On Friday, the Illinois Appellate Court confirmed the disorderly conduct verdicts of actor and singer Jussie Smollett, who was charged with fabricating a racist, homophobic attack on himself in 2019 and deceiving Chicago police about it.
Smollett, who was in the TV show “Empire,” contested the appointment of a special prosecutor, the choice of the jury, the evidence shown and many other aspects of the trial. But the court dismissed all of them in a 2-1 ruling.
Smollett had claimed to the police that he was attacked by two men wearing ski masks who uttered racist and homophobic slurs. The police first searched for the attackers, but soon focused on Smollett himself, detaining him for planning the whole event. According to the authorities, he paid two men whom he knew from working on “Empire,” which was filmed in Chicago. Prosecutors said Smollett instructed the men what insults to say, and to shout that he was in “MAGA Country,” a reference to Donald Trump’s presidential campaign slogan.
A jury found Smollett guilty in 2021 on five felony counts of disorderly conduct, a charge that can be filed in Illinois when a person lies to police.
He now will have to complete a 150-day jail term that was part of his sentence. Smollett spent only six days in jail while his appeal was pending.
A message seeking comment from his lawyer, Nenye Uche, was not immediately returned. Attorneys for Smollett, who is Black and gay, have publicly stated that he was the victim of a racist justice system and political games.
Appellate Justice Freddrenna Lyle would have overturned the convictions. She said it was “fundamentally unfair” to appoint a special prosecutor and charge Smollett when he had already done community service as part of a 2019 deal with Cook County prosecutors to close the case. “It was common sense that Smollett was bargaining for a complete resolution of the matter, not simply a temporary one,” Lyle said. Special prosecutor Dan Webb was appointed to investigate why the case was dropped. A grand jury later reinstated charges against Smollett in 2020, and Webb concluded there were “substantial abuses of discretion” in the state’s attorney office during the earlier round.
Smollett was not protected from a new round of charges, appellate Justices David Navarro and Mary Ellen Coghlan said in the majority opinion.
“The record does not contain any evidence that (prosecutors) agreed Smollett would not be further prosecuted in exchange for forfeiting his bond and performing community service,” they said.