Jussie Smollett's conviction in a headline-grabbing hate crime hoax has been thrown out.
Illinois Supreme Court on Thursday — in what case? WLS-TV An agreement between the former “Empire” actor and Cook County State's Attorney Kim Foxx to drop criminal charges in exchange for fines and community service should have stood, a judge ruled.
Smollett claimed that two men wearing ski masks punched him, put a rope around his neck, poured bleach on him and shouted, “This is MAGA country!”
“We are aware that this case aroused significant public interest and that many people were dissatisfied with the resolution of the original case and believed it to be unfair,” the court said in its ruling, according to WLS. said. “Nevertheless, perhaps more unjust than the resolution of any single criminal case is this court's decision that states are not obliged to abide by agreements on which their citizens have relied to their detriment.”
The agency added that the court referenced Bill Cosby's lawsuit in Pennsylvania as part of its decision.
As the Pennsylvania Supreme Court recently stated in enforcing prosecutors' promises not to prosecute, “There is no denying that society has a strong interest in prosecuting crimes; However, it is true that society's interests can never be overridden. Society's interest in ensuring that the people's constitutional rights are legitimate is the same as the need for redress by those whose constitutional rights have been violated. It does not invalidate it. ” Cosby, 252 A.2d, 1147.
The court sent the Smollett case back to the circuit court for dismissal, WLS reported, adding that two of the state's seven Supreme Court justices did not participate in the argument or ruling.
The Illinois Court of Appeals in December upheld Mr. Smollett's disorderly conduct conviction in a 2-1 decision, the agency said, adding that Mr. Smollett has since appealed to the state Supreme Court.
What is your background?
Smollett, who is Black and gay, made national headlines when he claimed that two supporters of then-President Donald Trump physically attacked him near his Chicago apartment in the early morning hours of January 29, 2019. It became.
Smollett said he was leaving a Subway restaurant at about 2 a.m. in freezing temperatures when two men wearing ski masks confronted him and asked, “Aren't you a piece of shit from Empire?” He claimed to have yelled. Before punching him, she put a rope around his neck, doused him with bleach and shouted, “This is MAGA country!” — A reference to President Trump's “Make America Great Again” red hat.
But once the police investigation began, Smollett's story began to fall apart.
Chicago police arrested two suspects in the case, Nigerian-born brothers Abimbola and Olabinjo Osundairo. Smollett met him on the set of “Empire” in Chicago and at the gym, and both were aspiring actors. brothers told the police Smollett allegedly paid them to launch the attack to advance his career. In fact, then-Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson said Smollett paid the brothers $3,500 in checks to carry out the staged attack.
Johnson added that Smollett's hoax “made everyone angry.”
Investigators said surveillance video and taxi footage corroborated the Osundairo brothers' claims, as did phone records, carpool records and credit card records. Case summary Prosecutors released the documents.
Smollett was arrested in February 2019 and charged with felony disorderly conduct for filing a false police report, the same year he and Foxx were charged in exchange for $10,000 bail and community service. An agreement was reached to withdraw the.
However, in February 2020, a special prosecutor tasked with investigating the handling of the Smollett case indicted him. Interestingly, the state Supreme Court refused to dismiss the charges against Smollett a month later.
A jury in December 2021 found Smollett guilty of five of six counts of felony disorderly conduct, accusing him of staging a hate crime against himself and lying to police about the hoax.
During the trial, prosecutors argued that the actor had arranged a “dry run” of the hoax with his co-conspirators days before the incident, and that the practice was captured on surveillance video.
Osundairo brothers testified against Smollett During the trial, each took to the witness stand and repeated claims that Smollett assaulted him in front of street cameras, put a noose around his neck and instructed him to shout racist and homophobic slurs. Ta.
“Your very name has become an adverb of a lie.”
Mr Smollett testified in his own defense, insisting there was “no fabrication” and calling his brothers “liars” who attacked him on homophobic grounds and tried to extort money after the fact. insisted.
Chief prosecutor Dan Webb disagreed, arguing that Smollett's lies wasted Chicago Police Department resources and created racial divisions.
“Not only is it against the law, but it is clearly wrong for Mr. Smollett, a successful black actor, to blatantly denounce something as serious and heinous as an actual hate crime. , to make sure it contains words and symbols that have historically had very frightening implications for our country,” Webb said. According to the Chicago Sun-Times.
Smollett was sentenced to 150 days in prison in March 2022.
In a speech before sentencing, Cook County Judge James Linn eviscerated Smollett, calling him a “charlatan” and saying, “Your hypocrisy is astounding.” “You wanted to make yourself more famous”, by an elaborate “premeditated” ruse, and “you threw a national pity party for yourself”. But the worst part, the judge said, was that Smollett lied to authorities about everything.
“Your very name has become an adverb of a lie,” Lin said.
“I'm not suicidal, I'm innocent,” Smollett shouted in court. “I didn't do that,” he said, adding that if “something were to happen” to him while in prison, he wouldn't have done those things.
Smollett's defense team asked for a new trial, but the mountain of evidence against his client was so overwhelming that Lin, who presided over Smollett's trial after he was convicted in December 2021, asked for a new trial. The claim was rejected.
Prior to sentencing, prosecutors read a victim impact statement from the city of Chicago, accusing Smollett of making it less likely that real victims of hate crimes would come forward to law enforcement. The city also sought more than $130,000 in restitution for resources it says Smollett wasted.
You can view the video report here Regarding the Illinois Supreme Court's decision to throw out Smollett's conviction.
Do you like Blaze News? Avoid censorship and sign up for our newsletter to get articles like this delivered straight to your inbox. Please register here!
