Jussie Smollett Petitions Court to Overturn 2019 Hate Crime Conviction – Essence

In the most recent development in actor Jussie Smollett’s years-long legal battle, he asked the Illinois Supreme Court to overturn his “disorderly conduct conviction” ruling The Court of Appeal has issued its judgment.

Timeline review: In 2019, Smollett claimed he was the victim of a hate crime because he was being harassed because he was black and gay. Police continued to investigate and Smollett was charged with 16 offences, accusing him of faking a hate crime against himself and lying to police about it.”

Every week later, the fees were dropped. judge then ruled that “the agreement to drop the initial charges was invalid.” A special prosecutor was appointed “to determine whether new charges should be filed.” The special prosecutor’s ruling: yes.

Smollett was then charged with latest charges and “was convicted of five counts of disorderly conduct in 2021 and sentenced to 150 days in jail.” He spent only care for six days, after which he was released pending an appeal.

In December 2023, a 3-judge Illinois Court of Appeals upheld the conviction in a 2-1 vote decisionthis I appeal The court found that there was “no evidence that prosecutors agreed not to prosecute Smollett further after the initial charges against him were dropped in exchange for forfeiture of $10,000 bail and performance of 16 hours of community service.”

However, according to the judgment of Appeal Judge Freddrenny Lyle dissenting argument that “it was ‘fundamentally unfair’ to appoint a special counsel to prosecute Smollett a second time after he reached a deal he believed would have ended the case.”

Smollett’s lawyers made that argument of their latest motion, arguing that his conviction violates his protections under the Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. double jeopardyaccording to which the identical person can’t be legally punished twice for a similar crime.

“What should have been a simple case has become complicated by a combination of politics and public outrage,” Smollett wrote. lawyers.

What’s next for Smollett? He now has to finish the remaining 144 days of his sentence. State Supreme Court can select to hear the case or let the lower court’s decision stand. Gil Soffer, a legal analyst for ABC7doesn’t imagine Smollett has many additional options after his appeal.

“The trial before the Illinois Supreme Court is truly the end of the road for him and is unlikely to bring him much success,” he said. Suffer“It’s very difficult to get to a Supreme Court hearing, and even harder to win once you’re there.”