Actor Jussie Smollett after his court appearance at Leighton Courthouse on March 26, 2019, in Chicago, Illinois. | Source: Nuccio DiNuzzo / Getty
Actor/singer Jussie Smollett can finally put his legal troubles behind him after the Illinois Supreme Court decided to reverse his 2021 conviction for staging a hate crime against himself.
As reported by WGN-TV, the former Empire star took his case to the Illinois Supreme Court in September in a last-ditch effort to have his conviction overturned. His previous attempt was denied by the Appellate Court of Illinois in December of last year.
The Illinois Supreme Court announced its decision in a statement on Thursday.
“Today we resolve a question about the State’s responsibility to honor the agreements it makes with defendants. Specifically, we address whether a dismissal of a case by nolle prosequi allows the State to bring a second prosecution when the dismissal was entered as part of an agreement with the defendant and the defendant has performed his part of the bargain. We hold that a second prosecution under these circumstances is a due process violation, and we therefore reverse defendant’s conviction.”
The special prosecutor in the case noted that the Illinois Supreme Court’s decision “has nothing to do with Mr. Smollett’s innocence” according to the Associated Press.
“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,” Dan Webb said.
Smollett was convicted of falsely reporting a hate crime against him in 2019. The actor, who is openly gay, alleged that his attackers yelled racist and homophobic slurs at him. He also alleged that the men hung a noose around his neck.
Testimony at his trial revealed that Smollett paid two brothers $3,500 to stage the attack. Smollett was ultimately found guilty of five counts of disorderly conduct.
However, Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx initially dropped his 16 charges back in 2019, before his conviction. The initial dismissal serves as the basis for the Supreme Court’s decision this week.
Foxx, who recused herself after communicating with one of Smollett’s relatives during the probe, reiterated that she welcomed an independent investigation into how her office handled the case. The investigation started in August 2019, when Judge Michael Toomin appointed former U.S. attorney Dan Webb as special prosecutor.
Webb led the case the second time, which led to Smollett’s conviction in December 2019.
He was sentenced to 150 days in jail, 30 months probation, and ordered to pay over $130,000 in restitution. So far, Smollett only served six days of that sentence.
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