Jussie Smollett’s conviction for alleged street assault scam overturned

Jussie Smollett, the actor accused of faking a homophobic attack on the streets of Chicago in 2019, had his conviction overturned by the Illinois Supreme Court on Thursday, where a judge ruled that his second prosecution after the case had already been settled violated his right to fair trial.

Smollett has attacked the case from every angle since the saga was relaunched six months after the charges were dropped, and on Thursday, in a 5-0 opinion with two justices abstaining, the court declared that a second case opened against Smollett, violated his due process. rights.

“We believe that a second prosecution under these circumstances would be a violation of due process, and we therefore reverse the defendant’s conviction,” Rochford wrote in the opinion.

Smollett, who is black and gay, was a breakout star on the Fox TV series Empire when he claimed in January 2019 that he was attacked on the streets of Chicago by two black men who hurled homophobic slurs at him and shouted “This is MAGA country” while punching him and putting a noose around his neck as he walked to his apartment. . The two men, Abimbola Osundairo and Olabinjo Osundairo, said they were instructed by Smollett to attack him and that the actor had explained to the brothers how to do it. The two alleged attackers testified that Smollett staged the attack and paid them $3,500 to do it. Smollett maintains that his claims were not a hoax.

When Chicago detectives discovered this, the story became a sensation, combining issues of race and homosexuality, celebrity and social media, and came as Trump had taken to the White House and the MAGA movement was emboldened. Prosecutors eventually offered to drop the charges if Smollett agreed to forfeit his $10,000 bond and perform community service.

Still, the public outcry was fierce and loud, and with the DA accused of favoritism, a special prosecutor revived the case after its dismissal. Prosecutors alleged that Smollett staged the attack when he was unhappy with a television studio’s response to hate mail he received. Smollett was convicted by a grand jury of six counts of aggravated criminal conduct for falsely reporting the fake attack to the police; in November 2021, he was found guilty of five of the six counts. He served six days of a five-month prison sentence in 2022 before being released on appeal.

On Thursday, Illinois State Supreme Court Justice Elizabeth M. Rochford ruled that the special prosecutor’s case was a violation of Smollett’s rights.

Nenye Uche, who led Smollett’s defense team, expressed her gratitude for his client’s legal victory.

“This was not a prosecution based on facts, rather it was a vindictive pursuit, and such a proceeding has no place in our criminal justice system,” he said in a statement after the ruling, “Ultimately, we are pleased that the rule of law was the big winner today. We are grateful to the Illinois Supreme Court for restoring order to Illinois’ criminal jurisprudence.”