Three years after he was convicted of staging an attack against himself in downtown Chicago, the ruling against Jussie Smollett has been overturned by the Illinois Supreme Court.
Smollett was convicted on five counts of felony disorderly conduct and acquitted on a sixth for filing a false police report. The Empire actor claimed in 2019 that two men assaulted him, poured bleach on him, and tied a noose around his neck.
“This was not a prosecution based on facts. Rather, it was a vindictive persecution, and such a proceeding has no place in our criminal justice system,” Smollett’s attorney Mark Geragos said in a statement. “Ultimately, we are pleased that the rule of law was the big winner today. We are thankful to the Illinois Supreme Court for restoring order to Illinois’s criminal law jurisprudence.”
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Smollett’s sentence included 150 days in jail, 30 months of probation, and a restitution fine of more than $130,000. As of Thursday, he had only served six days of this sentence.
The actor was affected by this trial, which began when he paid two men from his show Empire $3,500 each to participate in the hoax. After his conviction, a courtroom outburst in which Smollett proclaimed he was not suicidal led to a mental health evaluation.