The Illinois Supreme Court ruled on Thursday to overturn disgraced actor Jussie Smollett’s conviction for staging a racist and homophobic attack on himself in 2019. The court ruled that the appointment of a special prosecutor to retry Smollett after initial charges were dropped by the Cook County State’s Attorney violated his rights, a technicality that warranted a reversal of the verdict.
“Today we resolve a question about the State’s responsibility to honor the agreements it makes with defendants,” the court wrote in its decision. “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.”
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Smollett, who played a supporting character on the TV drama “Empire,” claimed that two White men in MAGA hats had assaulted him on the streets of Chicago, yelling racist and homophobic slurs and placing a noose around his neck. After weeks of hysterical reactions from the media and prominent public figures, an investigation revealed that Smollett had paid two brothers from Nigeria to help him stage the assault,
Smollett had been convicted in 2021 of five counts of disorderly conduct, but his appeal argued that a non-prosecution agreement was in place after he paid a $140,000 fine for filing a false report, which should have prevented further legal action. The Supreme Court’s decision emphasizes the importance of the state honoring agreements made with defendants.
“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 majority opinion read. “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.”
This ruling spares Smollett from serving a five-month jail sentence, although he has already served six days.
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