SPRINGFIELD, Ill. – The Illinois Supreme Court has reversed the 2021 conviction of actor Jussie Smollett, the former “Empire” actor, citing a due process violation in his second prosecution after initial charges were dropped.
According to WGN News, Smollett was convicted of allegedly fabricating a 2019 hate crime against him in 2021. Smollett, who is Black and gay, alleged his attackers shouted racist and homophobic slurs at him before putting a noose around his neck on a freezing night in Streeterville.
However, prior to his conviction in April 2019, Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx’s office had dropped the initial charges against Smollett. Foxx recused herself from the case after communicating with one of Smollett’s relatives during the investigation.
In August 2019, according to WGN News, Cook County Judge Michael Toomin appointed former U.S. Attorney Dan Webb as special prosecutor.
WGN News reported Webb led the prosecution efforts the second time around and a grand jury returned a six-count indictment against the actor on Feb. 11, 2020. In December 2021, Smollett was convicted on five felony counts of disorderly conduct for arranging a staged hate crime.
“This jury worked so hard and for Mr. Smollett to get up in front of them and lie for hours and hours and hours, that really compounded his misconduct,” Webb said.
Smollett was sentenced to 150 days in jail, 30 months of probation, and more than $130,000 in restitution, but served only six days before appealing, according to news reports.
Late last week, the court alluded to Smollett’s original charges being dropped and agreed with the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office in 2019. Smollett fulfilled his part of the deal, the court noted, and pursuing new charges under these circumstances violated his constitutional rights.
According to WGN News, the court said that “it 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 detrimentally relied.”
“Today we resolve a question about the State’s responsibility to honor the agreements it makes with (the incarcerated),” the court wrote. “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 accused and the accused “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 the…conviction,” WGN News reported as to the court’s decision.
WGN News added the ruling also referenced the high-profile reversal of Bill Cosby’s conviction by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, noting, “Society’s interest in prosecution does not displace the remedy due to constitutionally aggrieved persons.”
After the Illinois Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Smollett’s convictions and sentence, and award more than $120,000 in restitution to the City of Chicago for its overtime expenses in investigating this case, special prosecutor Dan Webb expressed disappointment, claiming the decision “upends long-standing Illinois precedent.”
Webb said, per WGN, “Today’s ruling has nothing to do with Mr. Smollett’s innocence. The Illinois Supreme Court did not find any error with the overwhelming evidence presented at trial that Mr. Smollett orchestrated a fake hate crime…Mr. Smollett did not even challenge the sufficiency of the evidence against him in his appeal to the Illinois Supreme Court.”
Webb also defended his team’s efforts, noting his team “devoted over five years and more than 15,000 hours in examining the original Smollett investigation and bringing new charges.” He pointed out that the new court ruling is not the result of any error or conduct by the Office of the Special Prosecutor.
According to WGN News, Webb also criticized the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office (CCSAO), which he described as having “substantial abuses of discretion and operational failures” in the initial handling of Smollett’s case, and charged State’s Attorney Foxx and other CCSAO prosecutors made multiple false claims to the public.
However, Nenye Uche, one of Smollett’s attorneys, celebrated the court’s decision as a win for justice.
“This was not a prosecution based on facts, rather it was a vindictive persecution, and such a proceeding has no place in our criminal justice system,” Uche said to WGN, adding, “Ultimately, we are pleased that the rule of law was the big winner today. We are thankful to the Illinois Supreme Court for restoring order to Illinois’ criminal law jurisprudence.”
