Illinois Supreme Court overturns Jussie Smollett’s conviction

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An Illinois Supreme Court on Thursday, November 21, has overturned the conviction of Jussie Smollett, stating prosecutors violated his constitutional rights.

Jussie Smollett’s conviction overturned

Smollett was convicted in 2021 for allegedly staging a hate crime against himself in Chicago in 2019.

The Supreme Court ruled that his constitutional rights were violated when he was prosecuted a second time, after the original charges against him were dropped in 2019.

The incident

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 always maintained his innocence from the beginning.

Smollett claimed he was the victim of a racist and homophobic attack near his apartment in January 2019 after he walked several blocks for a Subway sandwich shop.

After police investigated his claims, detectives directed their focus 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.

Smollett’s 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.

After Smollett had completed community service and forfeited his $10,000 bail, a special prosecutor was later assigned to reinvestigate the case, and brought a new indictment against him, but Smollett’s attorneys have argued that a special prosecutor never should have been allowed to bring new charges.

Jussie Smollett’s conviction overturned Court ruling

On Thursday, November 21, the Illinois Supreme 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.