Jussie Smollett Conviction Overturned by Illinois Supreme Court
The five disorderly conduct convictions for Jussie Smollett were overturned on Thursday by the Illinois Supreme Court, which ruled a special prosecutor’s decision to retry the “Empire” star after state charges were dropped violated his rights.
A jury convicted Smollett on five felony counts of disorderly conduct, a charge that can be filed in Illinois when a person lies to police. The actor was accused of staging a racist and homophobic attack against himself in downtown Chicago in 2019.
His conviction and jail sentence were upheld last December by an Illinois appeals court, which also heard his team’s argument that a special prosecutor should not have been allowed to intervene after the Cook County state’s attorney dropped all charges. But the Illinois Supreme Court disagreed with that portion, and remanded the case to the trial court to enter a dismissal.
Smollett had served only six days of his 150-day sentence, the rest of which will be vacated when a lower court dismisses the case.
“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 stated, according to the Chicago Tribune. “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.”
The Cook County state’s attorney’s office initially filed 16 counts of disorderly conduct, but dropped them after Smollett agreed to perform community service and forfeit a $10,000 bond; a grand jury then restored five of the charges after a special prosecutor took the case. Smollett has maintained his innocence throughout, testifying under oath that there was no “hoax” and that he was the victim of a hate crime.
Trial testimony indicated Smollett paid $3,500 to two men to carry out the attack. Prosecutors said he directed them on what to do and say, including shouting that he was in “MAGA country.”
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