Jussie Smollett pleads not guilty at Leighton Criminal Court Building, Thursday, March 14, 2019. (E. Jason Wambsgans / Pool / Chicago Tribune)
Illinois’ high court has agreed to hear an appeal from Jussie Smollett, more than two years after the former “Empire” star was convicted of orchestrating an elaborate hate crime hoax against himself.
The state Supreme Court on Wednesday disclosed that it has agreed to hear Smollett’s appeal after a lower appellate court upheld his 2021 convictions on five counts of disorderly conduct.
A Cook County judge ordered Smollett to serve the first 150 days of his 30 month probation sentence in jail, but that sentence has been put on hold during his extensive appeal.
A three-judge panel voted down Smollett’s appeal in a 2-1 decision last December, but in her dissenting opinion, Justice Freddrenna Lyle took issue with the dismissal of the actor’s initial charges by Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx’s office.
Smollett continues to maintain his innocence more than five years after the January 2019 incident. His attorneys have argued double jeopardy should have applied when a special prosecutor filed renewed charges against him after Cook County prosecutors dropped their initial criminal case.
Smollett claimed to be the victim of an attack by two men near his Streeterville apartment in the early morning hours of Jan. 29, 2019. He claimed his attackers yelled racist and homophobic slurs before they hit him in his face, poured a chemical substance on him and wrapped a rope around his neck.
Following an investigation, Chicago police determined Smollett had hired the men — brothers Olabinjo and Abimbola Osundairo — to stage the attack. He was then charged by Cook County prosecutors in February 2019.
But just weeks later, Foxx’s office dismissed those charges in a surprise move that sparked swift backlash against her office. The actor’s legal team argued this dismissal was part of a deal between Smollett and prosecutors in which the charges were dropped after he agreed to forfeit the $10,000 he paid in bond and complete 16 hours of community service.
Later that year — amid continued calls for an investigation into Foxx’s handling of the case — a judge appointed veteran litigator Dan Webb as a special prosecutor to investigate both the Smollett incident and what happened within Foxx’s office that led to the first charges being dismissed.
In February 2020, a grand jury indicted Smollett on a second round of disorderly conduct charges. He ultimately went to trial on those charges and was found guilty after a two-week trial.
Contact Matt Masterson: @ByMattMasterson | [email protected] | (773) 509-5431
