Actor Jussie Smollett‘s conviction in an alleged hate crime hoax in 2019, was overturned on Thursday by the Illinois Supreme Court. Also read: Illinois Supreme Court to hear actor Jussie Smollett appeal of conviction for staging racist attack
The judgement
According to Variety, the Empire actor was convicted in December 2021 of five felony counts of disorderly conduct for allegedly staging a hate crime against himself and was sentenced the following year to 150 days in county jail. In December 2023, his bid for an appeal was denied and it was ruled that he would have to serve his sentence, though he had not yet done so.
Now, the Illinois Supreme Court overturned the convictions for the actor, saying 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.
“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, according to the Chicago Tribune, adding, “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 honour agreements upon which people have detrimentally relied”.
The decision turns a new page in the closely-watched case in Illinois in recent years. The court remanded the case to the trial court to enter a dismissal.
About the case
The actor was convicted by a jury of five of six counts of disorderly conduct in December of 2021 for lying to the police on January 29, 2019. He was sentenced to 150 days in jail, 30 months of probation and $130,160 in restitution.
In January 2019, Jussie told police he was attacked outside of his Chicago apartment building and called racist and homophobic slurs. After an investigation, the police alleged that Jussie 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, all charges were dropped after the state attorney reached a deal with his defence team. However, following controversy over dropping the charges, prosecutor Kim Foxx asked the state of Illinois to conduct a separate inquiry into the matter with a special prosecutor, who then indicted Smollett again in February 2020. In November 2021, the trial against Smollett began and he was found guilty in December.
