Jussie Smollett, the disgraced actor who was convicted of orchestrating a fraudulent, race-based attack against himself, got jaw-dropping news in court on Thursday.
The former HBO star turned felon saw his conviction overturned on appeal after the state Supreme Court ruled he has already paid his debt to society for the hate crime hoax and should not face a second trial. “Today we resolve a question about the State’s responsibility to honor the agreements it makes with defendants,” the court wrote in documents obtained by Fox News Digital. “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.”
The Smollett saga stretches back to January 29th, 2019 when he approached Chicago police to report an assault on city streets, telling officers that a white male attacker shouted racial and homophobic slurs as well as “this is MAGA country!” Abimbola and Olabinjo Osundairo, two brothers who worked as extras on Smollett’s hit HBO series “Empire,” were later investigated and confessed that the A-list actor hired them to simulate an attack. A raid of their home revealed $3,500 in payments they claimed were given to them by Smollett along with rope found around his neck at the crime scene that they admitted to purchasing at a local hardware store.
On February 20th, 2019, prosecutors indicted Smollett on charges of disorderly conduct which were later dropped in a settlement contingent on his performing community service and forfeiting a $10,000 bond. Special prosecutor Kim Foxx later requested a new inquiry, and in 2021 a jury convicted the “Empire” actor on five charges, sentencing him to 150 days in jail. All that is now moot after the high court found it to be a violation of Smollett’s civil rights.
“Today we resolve a question about the State’s responsibility to honor the agreements it makes with defendants,” Mark Geragos, Smollett’s lawyer, told Fox News Digital. “We hold that a second prosecution under these circumstances is a due process violation, and we therefore reverse defendant’s conviction.”
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Despite earning a get-out-of-jail-free card, Smollett’s career may never recover. In 2021, he directed and released B-Boy Blues, a BET comedy starring himself, and in 2024 directed and released The Lost Holliday, neither of which carried wide circulation. HBO re-signed Smollett for the next season of “Empire” following the incident, but his character never returned to the show.
