Illinois Supreme Court Overturns Smollett Conviction

Former “Empire” actor Jussie Smollett has just benefited from one of the most ridiculous rulings I have ever seen.

The Illinois Supreme Court has tossed the guilty verdict from his 2019 hate crime hoax trial.

Smollett had been convicted in 2021 for lying to police and faking a hate crime against him, costing the city more than $100,000 in the process.

Duty Bound

Smollett’s attorneys argued that the actor’s Fifth Amendment rights were violated because of a previous agreement with Cook County prosecutor Kim Foxx.

Foxx had made an initial agreement to drop the charges against Smollett if he paid a $10,000 fine and did community service.

A special prosecutor, however, charged Smollett again, which led to a new trial and conviction.

The court stated that it was "fundamentally unfair to allow the prosecution to renege on a deal with a defendant when the defendant has relied on the agreement to his detriment.

"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.

“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.”

The court leaned on a precedent in the Bill Cosby case, when his conviction for sexual assault was overturned because of a previous deal that had been cut with the Montgomery County prosecutor.

Lead attorney Nenye Uche responded to the ruling, stating, "This was a vindictive persecution, not a prosecution.

"The Supreme Court made it clear: prosecutions must be based on facts, not public opinion.

"If this had been a regular citizen, this case would never have gone to trial.”

The city still intends to pursue the recovery of the funds it spent investigating the hate crime hoax perpetrated by Smollett.

In all, the city is trying to recover $120,000 in overtime costs by the Chicago Police Department for the investigation of the alleged attack.

I beg to differ with the statement from Smollett’s attorney. If this was a crime by a regular citizen, that initial deal never would have been offered, and we all know it.

They were only cutting him a break because he was a star and the city was trying to avoid negative publicity… and that came back to bite them big league.