The Illinois Supreme Court overturned Jussie Smollett’s hate crime hoax conviction Thursday.
“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.”
Smollett, who is Black and gay, reported to Chicago police that he was the victim of a racist and homophobic attack by two men wearing ski masks in January 2019.
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Jussie Smollett’s conviction was overturned by the Illinois Supreme Court. (Nuccio DiNuzzo)
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Charges against Smollett were originally dropped. After special prosecutor Kim Foxx requested a new inquiry, the “Empire” star was convicted on five felony counts and later sentenced to 150 days in county jail. The Illinois Supreme Court decided Thursday that the special prosecutor’s decision to retry Smollett on charges violated his 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.”
Smollett filed a petition on Feb. 5, requesting the Illinois high court intervene in his ongoing legal drama. The actor’s conviction for a staged hate crime was upheld in December.
“What should have been a straightforward case has been complicated by the intersection of politics and public outrage,” Smollett’s attorneys wrote in the February petition.
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This booking photo provided by the Cook County Sheriff’s Office shows Jussie Smollett. (Cook County Sheriff’s Office via AP)
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Jussie Smollett was originally sentenced to 150 days in jail. (Brian Cassella/Chicago Tribune via AP)
They repeated an argument from previous appeals saying his 2021 trial violated his Fifth Amendment protections against double jeopardy, or being punished twice for the same crime. They said he had already performed community service and forfeited a $10,000 bond as part of a 2019 deal with the Cook County state’s attorney’s office to drop the initial 16 counts of disorderly conduct.
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Smollett’s legal team argued that the state breached a “nolle prose agreement,” or non-prosecution agreement, by indicting him again in the hate crime hoax. In the agreement, Smollett had been told he could perform community service, forfeit his bond, and the case would be dismissed – similar to a deferred prosecution. Instead, a grand jury restored the charges in 2020, and he was later convicted.
In this courtroom sketch, actor Jussie Smollett stands as a jury finds him guilty on five of six charges he staged a racist, anti-gay attack on himself and lied to police about it. (AP Photo/Cheryl Cook)
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The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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