Jussie Smollett's conviction for hate crime hoax dismissed in 'surprising' 5-0 decision by Illinois Supreme Court

Jussie Smollett's conviction for his headline-grabbing hate crime hoax has been dismissed.

The Illinois Supreme Court on Thursday — in what WLS-TV said was a "surprising" 5-0 decision — ruled that an agreement between the former "Empire" actor and Cook County State's Attorney Kim Foxx to drop criminal charges in exchange for a fine and community service should have stood.

Smollett claimed the two men wearing ski masks beat him up, put a rope around his neck, poured bleach on him, and hollered, 'This is MAGA country!'

"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 court said in its ruling, according to WLS. "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 station added that the court referred to Bill Cosby's case in Pennsylvania as part of its decision.

As the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania recently stated when enforcing a prosecutorial promise not to prosecute, "It cannot be gainsaid that society holds a strong interest in the prosecution of crimes. It is also true that no such interest, however important, ever can eclipse society's interest in ensuring that the constitutional rights of the people are vindicated. Society's interest in prosecution does not displace the remedy due to constitutionally aggrieved persons." Cosby, 252 A.2d at 1147.

The court said it has remanded the Smollett case back to the circuit court to enter a judgment of dismissal, WLS reported, adding that two of the seven state supreme court justices didn't take part in the arguments or decision.

An Illinois appeals court in December upheld Smollett's disorderly conduct conviction by a 2-1 vote, the station said, adding that Smollett then appealed to the state supreme court.

What's the background?

Smollett — who is black and gay — made national headlines for claiming a pair of supporters of then-President Donald Trump physically attacked him near his apartment in Chicago in the early morning hours of Jan. 29, 2019.

Smollett claimed the two men wearing ski masks confronted him as he was leaving a Subway restaurant around 2 a.m. in below-freezing conditions and yelled, "Aren't you that f***ot 'Empire' n*****?" before beating him up, putting a rope around his neck, pouring bleach on him, and hollering, "This is MAGA country!" — a reference to Trump's red "Make America Great Again" hats.

But once a police investigation began, Smollett's story began to crumble.

Chicago police caught the two suspects in the crime, Nigerian-born brothers Abimbola and Olabinjo Osundairo — aspiring actors whom Smollett knew from the Chicago set of "Empire" and from a gym. The brothers told police that Smollett paid them to stage the attack in an effort to boost his career. In fact, then-Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson said Smollett used a check to pay the brothers $3,500 to pull off the staged attack.

Johnson added that Smollett's hoax "pissed everybody off."

Detectives said surveillance video and in-car taxi videos corroborated the Osundairo brothers' claims, as did telephone logs, rideshare records, and credit card records, according to a case summary document prosecutors released.

Smollett was arrested in February 2019 and charged with felony disorderly conduct for filing a false police report — but that same year, he and Foxx in reached an agreement to drop charges against him in exchange for $10,000 bond and community service.

However, in February 2020, a special prosecutor tasked with investigating the handling of the Smollett case indicted him. Interestingly, the state supreme court refused to throw out charges against Smollett a month later.

A jury in December 2021 found Smollett guilty on five of six counts of felony disorderly conduct for staging a hate crime against himself and then lying to police about the hoax.

During that trial, prosecutors alleged the actor arranged a "dry run" of the hoax with his co-conspirators days prior to it taking place — and that the practice session was captured on surveillance video.

The Osundairo brothers testified against Smollett in the trial, each taking the witness stand to repeat their claims that Smollett told them to place a noose around his neck and shout racial and homophobic slurs while roughing him up in view of a street camera.

'Your very name has become an adverb for lying.'

Smollett testified in his own defense and maintained that “there was no hoax" and that the brothers are “liars” who attacked him over homophobia and tried to extort money from him after the fact.

Lead prosecutor Dan Webb wasn't buying it, saying Smollett's lies cost the Chicago Police Department resources and caused racial division.

“Besides being against the law, it’s just plain wrong for Mr. Smollett, a successful black actor, to outright denigrate something as serious, as heinous, as a real hate crime. To denigrate it and then make sure it involved words and symbols that have such horrible historical significance in our country," Webb said according to the Chicago Sun-Times.

Smollett in March 2022 was sentenced to 150 days in jail.

In an address before issuing his sentence, Cook County Judge James Linn eviscerated Smollett, calling him a "charlatan" and telling him "your hypocrisy is astounding"; "you wanted to make yourself more famous" through the elaborate, "premeditated" caper, and then "you threw a national pity party for yourself." But the worst part, the judge said, was that Smollett lied to authorities about it all.

"Your very name has become an adverb for lying," Linn said.

Smollett hollered in court, "I am not suicidal, and I am innocent." He added that "I did not do this" and that "if anything happens" to him while in jail that he didn't do it to himself.

Smollett's defense lawyers pushed for a new trial, but the mountain of evidence against their client was too high, and Linn — who presided over Smollett's trial in December 2021 in which he was convicted — denied the new trial request.

Prior to sentencing, the prosecution read a victim impact statement from the city of Chicago that blasted Smollett for making it less likely that actual victims of hate crimes will come forward to law enforcement. The city also requested just over $130,000 in restitution for the resources they said Smollett wasted.

You can view a video report here about the Illinois Supreme Court's decision to dismiss Smollett's conviction.

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