CHICAGO (CBS) — The Illinois Supreme Court on Thursday overturned former “Empire” actor Jussie Smollett’s conviction for orchestrating a hate crime hoax.
Smollett was convicted of five counts of disorderly conduct and sentenced to 150 days in jail in 2021, but was released after only six days behind bars while he appealed his case. Smollett has maintained his innocence from the beginning.
Smollett claimed he was the victim of a racist and homophobic attack near his Streeterville apartment in January 2019 after he walked several blocks for a Subway sandwich shop.
After police investigated his claims, detectives later focused on Smollett himself, and he was charged with staging a fake hate crime against himself with brothers Abel and Ola Osundairo, who later testified he paid them to stage the attack.
Defense attorneys had argued his trial violated his Fifth Amendment protections against double jeopardy, after Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx’s office agreed to drop the original charges against him.
A special prosecutor was later assigned to reinvestigate the case, and brought a new indictment against him, but Smollett’s attorneys have argued that the special prosecutor never should have been allowed to bring new charges.
On Thursday, the state’s highest court sided with Smollett’s attorneys, reversing his conviction, and ordering the case against him dismissed.
“Today we resolve a question about the State’s responsibility to honor the agreements it makes with defendants. 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,” Justice Elizabeth Rochford wrote in the court’s ruling.
Cook County prosecutors dropped the original charges against Smollett weeks after he was charged, in exchange for him forfeiting his $10,000 bond and performing 16 hours of community service, but a judge later ruled that Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx’s office mishandled the case and appointed a special prosecutor to review it.
That special prosecutor later brought a new grand jury indictment against Smollett, and he was convicted of five counts of disorderly conduct and sentenced to 150 days in jail. He served only six days of that sentence before he was released while he appealed his case.
Last December, an Illinois Appellate Court panel upheld Smollett’s conviction, siding with prosecutors who argued there was no evidence prosecutors had agreed not to prosecute Smollett further when the initial charges against him were dropped.
But Appellate Justice Freddrenna Lyle dissented in that ruling, arguing it was “fundamentally unfair” to appoint a special prosecutor to charge Smollett a second time after he’d entered an agreement he believed would end the case.
In reversing Smollett’s conviction, the Illinois Supreme Court agreed with defense attorneys that the special prosecutor’s decision to file new charges violated Smollett’s rights after the original case was dropped and Smollett agreed to forfeit his $10,000 bond.
“It defies credulity to believe that defendant would agree to forfeit $10,000 with the understanding that [prosecutors] could simply reindict him the following day,” the court’s ruling stated.
The Illinois Supreme Court remanded Smollett’s case back to the trial court to formally enter a dismissal of the charges.
“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,” the opinion stated. “Nevertheless, what would be more unjust than the resolution of any one criminal case would be a holding from this court that the State was not bound to honor agreements upon which people have detrimentally relied.”
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