Disgraced actor Jussie Smollet's hate 2019 hate crime hoax has been overturned by the Illinois Supreme Court over prosecutorial issues.
According to the state high court, the former "Empire" actor should not have been charged after he entered a non-prosecution agreement with the Cook County State Attorney's office.
"Today we resolve a question about the State’s responsibility to honor the agreements it makes with defendants," the court wrote in documents obtained by Fox News. "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."
Smollett was sentenced to 150 days in jail and 30 months' probation after being found guilty of five counts of felony disorderly conduct, after he told police in January 2019 that he had been attacked by Trump supporters shouting at 2am in the middle of Chicago.
Smollett claimed that two Nigerian-born brothers - one of whom was his personal trainer, lover, and alleged drug dealer - are "sophisticated" criminals who set him up. The 39-year-old actor is accused of lying to police about being the victim of a racist and homophobic assault. The class-4 felony carries a sentence of up to three years in prison, however experts cited by Fox News think he would most likely face probation and perhaps community service.
Here’s that black privilege people keep saying doesn’t exist…….
— Spitfire (@DogRightGirl) November 21, 2024
Illinois Supreme Court overturns actor Jussie Smollett's 2019 conviction on allegations of staging a racist and homophobic attack against himself.
pic.twitter.com/9DFOB2uhHw
The brothers, Abimbola and Olabinjo Osundario, claim Smollett paid them $3,500 to stage an infamous hate-crime hoax on January 29, 2019 - when the former "Empire" star claimed he was attacked around 2 a.m. by two white men who recognized him from the show shouted racist and homophobic slurs, doused him in a bleach-like liquid, hung a rope around his neck, and yelled "This is MAGA country."
The scandal soon engulfed Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx, who was widely criticized for the move and was later found to have made a series of unethical blunders in her handling of the case.
Smollet was originally slapped with a 16-count indictment for lying to the police, however the Cook County State Attorney's office suddenly dropped the charges after Michelle Obama's former Chief of Staff, Tina Tchen, pressured Chicago's top prosecutor, Kim Foxx, to transfer the case to the FBI. When that wasn't done, Foxx's office decided not to pursue the case.
