Empire star Jussie Smollett’s 2021 conviction on charges that he staged a racist and homophobic attack against himself and lied to police has been overturned by the Illinois Supreme Court.
The actor, who is Black and gay, claimed two men assaulted him, spouted racial and homophobic slurs, and tossed a noose around his neck in downtown Chicago in 2019.
Prosecutors alleged he staged the attack because he was unhappy with the studio’s response to hate mail he received and a jury convicted him of five counts of disorderly conduct two years later. Smollett has always maintained his innocence.
Smollett’s appeal argued that a special prosecutor should not have been allowed to intervene after the Cook County state’s attorney initially dropped the 16 charges of disorderly conduct against him after he performed community service and forfeited a $10,000 bond.
However, a grand jury restored charges after the special prosecutor took the case.
The state’s highest court heard arguments in September, with the shock ruling returned on Thursday.
Testimony at his trial alleged Smollett paid $3,500 to two men he knew from Empire to carry out the attack. Prosecutors said he told them what slurs to shout and to yell that Smollett was in “MAGA country,” a reference to Donald Trump’s presidential campaign slogan.
Smollett testified that “there was no hoax” and that he was the victim of a hate crime in his downtown Chicago neighborhood.
He was sentenced to 150 days in jail — six of which he served before he was freed pending appeal — 30 months of probation and ordered to pay about $130,000 in restitution.
A state appellate court ruling upheld Smollett’s the conviction, declaring that no one promised Smollett he wouldn’t face a fresh prosecution after accepting the original deal.
His attorneys previously argued that Smollett has been victimized by a racist and politicized justice system.
