CHICAGO (CBS) — The Illinois Supreme Court on Thursday overturned the conviction of former “Empire” actor Jussie Smollett for allegedly committing a hate crime against himself in Chicago in 2019.
The state’s highest court did not rule on the merits of the case against Smollett, ruling only that his constitutional rights were violated when he was prosecuted for a second time after the original charges against him were dropped in 2019.
“This was not a decision on the merits of the case – whether or not he is guilty or not, whether or not he did it. This is strictly a constitutional decision that says this right to a fair trial is being violated by the way it is done. the system prosecuted him,” said CBS News Chicago legal analyst Irv Miller. “There should not have been a jury trial. There should not have been a conviction that sentenced him to probation and jail in Cook County.”
Smollett was convicted of five counts of disorderly conduct and sentenced to 150 days in prison in 2021, but was released after just six days behind bars while he was appealing. Smollett has maintained his innocence from the start.
How did the case against Smollett get to this point?
Smollett claimed he was the victim of a racist and homophobic attack near his Streeterville apartment in January 2019 after walking several blocks to a Subway sandwich shop.
After police investigated his claims, detectives later focused on Smollett himself, and he was accused of committing a fake hate crime against himself with brothers Abel and Ola Osundairo, who later testified that he paid them to cover the attack to organize.
Defense attorneys had argued that his trial violated the Fifth Amendment’s 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, Dan Webb, was later ordered to re-examine the case and filed new charges against him, but Smollett’s attorneys have argued that Webb should never have filed new charges.
On Thursday, the state’s highest court sided with Smollett’s attorneys, overturning his conviction and ordering the case against him to be dismissed.
“Today we resolve a question about the state’s responsibility to honor the agreements it makes with defendants. In particular, we examine the question of whether a dismissal of a case by nolle prosequi allows the state to bring a second prosecution when the dismissal was entered into as part of an agreement. with the defendant and the defendant has fulfilled his part of the bargain. We believe that a second prosecution under these circumstances is a violation of due process, and therefore we reverse the defendant’s conviction,” Judge Elizabeth Rochford wrote in the court’s ruling.
Smollett’s lead attorney, Nenye Uche, said Smollett was “relieved” with the decision and was looking forward to moving on with his life.
Uche said the Supreme Court’s ruling proves it was unfair to prosecute Smollett a second time and called the trial “a travesty of justice.”
“Prosecutions must be based on facts. Persecutions should not be based on revenge. This was a vindictive prosecution,” Uche said. “The Supreme Court was clear: The rule of law and due process must remain the fundamental process by which American jurisprudence is governed. It is not guided by public opinion.”
Uche claimed that if Smollett had not been so famous, he would never have been prosecuted in the first place.
“If this had been the average Joe on the street, this case would never have come to trial. No prosecutor would have brought this case to trial. It was ridiculous. There was no direct evidence linking him to anything ” he said.
In a statement, Special Prosecutor Dan Webb said he was disappointed with the Illinois Supreme Court’s ruling and disagreed with the court’s reasoning that dismissing the original indictment precludes a new prosecution.
“Make no mistake, today’s verdict has nothing to do with Mr. Smollett’s innocence. The Illinois Supreme Court found no fault with the overwhelming evidence presented at trial that Mr. Smollett orchestrated a fake hate crime and reported it to Chicago police. as a true hate crime, or the jury’s unanimous verdict that Mr. Smollett was guilty of five counts of 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,” Webb said.
But Uche said Smollett still maintains his innocence.
“He is innocent, and he has always maintained his innocence, and there has been a mountain of reasonable doubt and evidence pointing to his innocence in this case, which no one has bothered to look at,” Uche said.
Cook County prosecutors dropped the original charges against Smollett weeks after he was indicted in exchange for 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, mishandled the case and appointed Web. as a special prosecutor to review this.
Webb later filed new charges against Smollett he was convicted of five counts of disorderly conduct and sentenced to 150 days in jail. Smollett was also ordered to pay a $25,000 fine and $120,106 in restitution to the city of Chicago. He only served six days of that sentence before being released while he appealed his case.
Last December one The Illinois Appellate Court panel affirmed Smollett’s convictionsiding with prosecutors who claimed there was no evidence, prosecutors had agreed not to prosecute Smollett further when the initial charges against him were dropped.
But Judge Freddrenna Lyle disagreed, arguing it was “fundamentally unfair” to appoint a special prosecutor who would charge Smollett a second time after reaching an agreement he believed would end the case .
In overturning Smollett’s conviction, the Illinois Supreme Court agreed with attorneys that the special counsel’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 the defendant would agree to forfeit $10,000, with the understanding that [prosecutors] He could simply retry him the next day,” the court ruling said.
The Illinois Supreme Court sent Smollett’s case back to the trial court to formally dismiss 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 felt it was unfair,” the opinion said. “Nevertheless, what would be more unjust than the resolution of any criminal case would be a finding by this court that the state was not required to honor agreements upon which people have harmfully relied.”
CBS News Chicago legal analyst Irv Miller, a former prosecutor, said the court’s ruling is not surprising.
“I fully agree with what the Illinois Supreme Court did today, saying that when a prosecutor makes a deal, he is making a promise in exchange for the suspect doing something like Mr. Smollett did – giving up his bond and perform community service – a A bargain is a bargain, and if the prosecutor fails to keep that bargain, it violates a defendant’s due process rights,” Miller said. “The district attorney’s special prosecutor reneged on that agreement. A prosecutor cannot go back on an agreement, period, end of case,” Miller said.
What happens now that the criminal case is over?
While the criminal case against Smollett is now over, a civil case continues between Smollett and the city of Chicago.
Miller said the court’s ruling likely won’t have any effect on a lawsuit the city of Chicago filed against Smollett in 2019. in an attempt to force Smollett to repay the city more than $130,000 for the costs of investigating his hate crime claims after police determined it was a hoax.
Smollett has countered the city, accusing the police of malicious prosecution.
“Frankly, this decision by the Illinois Supreme Court actually has no bearing on that federal case whatsoever. It remains to be seen whether he indeed drew up a false police report, and the city of Chicago therefore. , has spent thousands and thousands of dollars in police overtime and salaries investigating the case.
In January 2019, Smollett said he was beaten by two masked men who poured bleach on him and hung a noose around his neck while shouting homophobic and racist slurs, telling him “this is MAGA country.”
However, Chicago police have said that Smollett paid the Osundairo brothers to stage the attack because he was angry about his salary at the Fox show “Empire.”
