Gay actor Jussie Smollett’s false hate crime conviction overturned in shock ruling

Jussie Smollett’s false hate crime conviction has been overturned in a shock ruling.

In 2022, Jussie Smollett – who is a Black gay man – was sentenced to 150 days in jail after being convicted of staging a hate crime against himself, but his conviction has now been overturned.

Smollett said he was the victim of a hate crime in 2019, claiming that two men shouted homophobic, racist slurs, beat him and looped a makeshift noose around his neck.

He was later convicted of organising the “attack” himself. In December of 2021, a jury found Smollett guilty of five charges of disorderly conduct. 

This September, the former Empire actor took his case to the Illinois Supreme Court to have his conviction overturned. The court cited Smollett’s second prosecution after his charges were first dropped as the main factor for overturning the conviction.

The Illinois Supreme Court wrote in its ruling: “Today we resolve a question about the State’s responsibility to honour 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 the defendant’s conviction.”

Previously, Jussie Smollett was found guilty of five counts of disorderly conduct for organising the attack. Authorities initially believed the actor and investigated his claims, but evidence later surfaced suggesting that Smollett had paid two brothers who had worked with him on Empire as extras, Abimbola and Olabinjo Osundairo, to carry out a hoax attack.

Prior to his conviction, the Cook County State Attorney Kim Foxx initially dropped his 16 charges in April 2019. Foxx, who removed herself from the case, welcomed an independent investigation into how she and her office approached the case.

In August 2019, Cook County Judge Michael Toomin appointed former U.S. Attorney Dan Webb as special prosecutor. Webb headed up the prosecution in the second attempt when Smollett was found guilty of five out of six disorderly conduct charges in December 2021.

Jussie Smollett was sentenced to 150 days in jail, 30 months of probation, and was ordered to pay over $130,000 in restitution. He served just six days of the sentence when the Illinois Supreme Court overturned the ruling. 

Webb released a lengthy statement, in which he explained that the ruling “has nothing to do with Mr. Smollett’s innocence.”

Webb said: “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.

“In fact, Mr. Smollett did not even challenge the sufficiency of the evidence against him in his appeal to the Illinois Supreme Court.”