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, with a judge ruling that his second prosecution after the case had already been resolved was a violation of his right to due process.
Smollett has attacked the case from all angles since the saga was relaunched six months after 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 hold that a second prosecution under these circumstances is a due process violation, and we therefore reverse defendant’s conviction,” Rochford wrote in the opinion.
Smollett, who is Black and gay, was a breakout star of the Fox TV series Empire when, in January 2019 he claimed he was attacked in the streets of Chicago by two Black men who hurled homophobic slurs at him and yelled “This is MAGA country” while beating him and putting a noose around his neck while he was walking 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 detailed to the brothers how to do it. The two alleged attackers testified that Smollett made the attack up and paid them $3500 to do it. Smollett maintains that his allegations were not a hoax.
When Chicago detectives discovered this the story became a sensation that combined 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, public outcry was harsh and loud, and with the D.A. accused of favoritism, a special prosecutor revived the case after its dismissal. prosecutors alleged Smollett staged the attack as he was unhappy with a TV studio’s response to hate mail he received. Smollett was convicted by a grand jury of six counts of felony disorderly conduct for falsely reporting the phony 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 jail sentence in 2022 before he was released on appeal.
On Thursday, Illinois State Supreme Court Justice Elizabeth M. Rochford determined that the special prosecutor’s case was a violation of Smollett’s rights.
Nenye Uche, who led Smollett’s defense team, expressed his gratitude for his client’s legal win.
“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,” he said in a statement after the ruling, “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.”