Jussie Smollett can put his legal troubles behind him, after his conviction for staging a 2019 attack in Chicago, and filing a false police report was overturned.
The Illinois Supreme Court threw out the former Empire actor’s conviction on Thursday, Nov. 21, according to the Associated Press.
The decision came after the state’s highest court heard arguments in September from Smollett’s legal team, which argued that a special prosecutor should never have been allowed to intervene once Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx initially dropped the case against the actor.
The high court agreed and the actor’s original plea deal with Cook County prosecutors — which required him to forfeit his $10,000 bond, and do community service — is now being honored.
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“We are aware that this case has generated significant public interest and that many people were dissatisfied with the resolution of the original case and believed it to be unjust,” Justice Elizabeth Rochford wrote in the court’s 5-0 opinion.
The original plea deal was discarded when a grand jury brought charges once the special prosecutor took over the case.
During his trial, Smollett claimed two masked men — who turned out to be his friends Abimbola and Olabinjo Osundairo — put a noose around his neck and doused him with a chemical while yelling racist and homophobic slurs against the actor, who if African American and openly gay.
But Chicago police said Smollett tried to pull off an elaborate hoax to gain attention and sympathy, because his future on Empire had been uncertain.
The Osundairo brothers testified that Smollett paid them $3,500 and gave them lines to yell during the phony attack, including “this is MAGA country.”
Still, the actor maintained his innocence, testifying that “there was no hoax.”
Following the second court case, he received a sentence in 2022 of 150 days in jail — six of which he served before being released because of a pending appeal — and was ordered to pay about $130,000 in restitution.
Smollett’s character Jamal was written off Empire during season 5 of the drama series in 2019, following his arrest.
