The Illinois Supreme Court on Thursday overturned Jussie Smollett’s hate crime hoax conviction.
“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 Digital. “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, who is Black and gay, reported to Chicago police that he was the victim of a racist and homophobic attack by two men wearing ski masks in January 2019.
JUSSIE SMOLLETT’S CAREER HAS ‘HIT BOTTOM’ DESPITE MAINTAINING INNOCENCE OVER HATE CRIME HOAX: EXPERT
Jussie Smollett’s conviction was overturned by the Illinois Supreme Court. (Nuccio DiNuzzo)
WATCH ‘JUSSIE SMOLLETT: ANATOMY OF A HOAX’
Charges against Smollett were originally dropped. After special prosecutor Kim Foxx requested a new inquiry, the “Empire” star was convicted on five felony counts and later sentenced to 150 days in county jail. The Illinois Supreme Court decided Thursday that the special prosecutor’s decision to retry Smollett on charges violated his rights.
“Today we resolve a question about the State’s responsibility to honor the agreements it makes with defendants,” Mark Geragos, Smollett’s lawyer, told Fox News Digital. “We hold that a second prosecution under these circumstances is a due process violation, and we therefore reverse defendant’s conviction.”
CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR THE ENTERTAINMENT NEWSLETTER
“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,” another of Smollett’s attorneys, Nenye Uche, told Fox 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’ criminal law jurisprudence.”
This booking photo provided by the Cook County Sheriff’s Office shows Jussie Smollett. (Cook County Sheriff’s Office via AP)
“We are thankful to the Illinois Supreme Court for restoring order to Illinois’ criminal law jurisprudence.”
Former federal prosecutor Neama Rahmani explained the Illinois Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Smollett’s conviction.
“Jussie Smollett is Bill Cosby 2.0. Not because of what he did, but because of what the prosecutor did,” he told Fox News Digital. “Kim Foxx shockingly agreed to drop the charges against Smollett for staging a hate crime, lying about it, and costing Chicago PD countless hours and hundreds of thousands of dollars.”
“By the time a new special prosecutor took over, it was too late because Smollett had already forfeited his bail and performed community service,” Rahmani added. “The Illinois Supreme Court held there was an agreement and Smollett lived up to his end.”
“This is similar to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruling a previous district attorney agreed not to prosecute Cosby. It’s a shame because Smollett has never accepted responsibility for the hoax, and now he will never face real justice. And it’s an example of another soft on crime prosecutor in our nation’s biggest cities.”
WATCH ‘JUSSIE SMOLLETT: AFTER THE HOAX’
Jussie Smollett filed his appeal in February. (AP Photo/Paul Beaty, File)
“It’s a shame because Smollett has never accepted responsibility for the hoax, and now he will never face real justice. And it’s an example of another soft on crime prosecutor in our nation’s biggest cities.”
Special prosecutor Dan K. Webb, who was appointed to the case by Cook County Judge Michael B. Toomin, emphasized that Smollett is “not innocent” in a lengthy statement provided to Fox News Digital.
“We are disappointed in the Illinois Supreme Court’s decision today to overturn Jussie Smollett’s convictions and sentence, including the award of over $120,000 in restitution to the City of Chicago for its overtime expenses in investigating Mr. Smollett’s fake hate crime,” the special prosecutor told Fox News Digital in a statement. “We respectfully disagree with the Court’s factual and legal reasoning which upends long-standing Illinois precedent. Indeed, the Special Prosecutor’s brief to the Illinois Supreme Court was replete with Illinois case law that would not preclude a second, new prosecution following a dismissal without prejudice via nolle prosequi. Even the Illinois Supreme Court agreed in its opinion that its holding today was not explicit in earlier Illinois decisions.”
Special prosecutor Dan K. Webb said in a statement that they are “disappointed in the Illinois Supreme Court’s decision today to overturn Jussie Smollett’s convictions.” (Photo by Cindy Ord)
Today’s ruling does not change how deeply proud I am of the work my Special Prosecutor’s office accomplished; nor does it undermine the jury’s verdict, and most importantly, it does not clear Jussie Smollett’s name – he is not innocent.
“Make no mistake – today’s ruling has nothing to do with Mr. Smollett’s innocence. The Illinois Supreme Court did not find any error with the overwhelming evidence presented at trial that Mr. Smollett orchestrated a fake hate crime and reported it to the Chicago Police Department as a real hate crime, or the jury’s unanimous verdict that Mr. Smollett was guilty of five counts of felony disorderly conduct. In fact, Mr. Smollett did not even challenge the sufficiency of the evidence against him in his appeal to the Illinois Supreme Court.”
The statement continued, in part: “Despite today’s ruling, the City of Chicago remains able to pursue its pending civil lawsuit against Mr. Smollett in order to recoup the over $120,000 in overtime expenses the Chicago Police Department incurred for investigating Mr. Smollett’s fake hate crime.”
“I want to provide a special thanks to Deputy Special Prosecutors Sean G. Wieber, Samuel Mendenhall, and the entire team at Winston & Strawn who assisted in this matter, for all of their dedication and efforts over the years. Today’s ruling does not change how deeply proud I am of the work my Special Prosecutor’s office accomplished; nor does it undermine the jury’s verdict, and most importantly, it does not clear Jussie Smollett’s name – he is not innocent.”
Smollett was convicted on five of six charges of disorderly conduct. (Nuccio DiNuzzo)
Smollett filed a petition on Feb. 5, requesting the Illinois high court intervene in his ongoing legal drama. The actor’s conviction for a staged hate crime was upheld in December.
“What should have been a straightforward case has been complicated by the intersection of politics and public outrage,” Smollett’s attorneys wrote in the February petition.
READ THE RULING:
LIKE WHAT YOU’RE READING? CLICK HERE FOR MORE ENTERTAINMENT NEWS
Jussie Smollett was originally sentenced to 150 days in jail. (Brian Cassella/Chicago Tribune via AP)
They repeated an argument from previous appeals saying his 2021 trial violated his Fifth Amendment protections against double jeopardy, or being punished twice for the same crime. They said he had already performed community service and forfeited a $10,000 bond as part of a 2019 deal with the Cook County state’s attorney’s office to drop the initial 16 counts of disorderly conduct.
WATCH: CHICAGO’S FORMER TOP COP REACTS TO JUSSIE SMOLLETT HOAX EVIDENCE
Smollett’s legal team argued that the state breached a “nolle prose agreement,” or non-prosecution agreement, by indicting him again in the hate crime hoax. In the agreement, Smollett had been told he could perform community service, forfeit his bond, and the case would be dismissed — similar to a deferred prosecution. Instead, a grand jury restored the charges in 2020, and he was later convicted.
In this courtroom sketch, actor Jussie Smollett stands as a jury finds him guilty on five of six charges he staged a racist, anti-gay attack on himself and lied to police about it. (AP Photo/Cheryl Cook)
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
The Associated Press contributed to this report.