Entertainment
Jussie Smollett sentenced to 150 days in jail for lying to police in hate crime hoax
After the decide introduced his sentence, Smollett lowered his face masks and stated he was harmless. “Your honor, I respect you and I respect the jury, however I didn’t do that,” the actor informed the decide, earlier than turning to the courtroom. “And I’m not suicidal. And if something occurs to me after I go in there, I didn’t do it to myself. And you will need to all know that.”
Simply earlier than he was taken into custody, the actor yelled once more that he was harmless and raised a fist within the air.
Prepare dinner County Decide James Linn spoke for greater than half-hour earlier than saying Smollett’s sentence, telling the actor that he wrote the script and picked the actors for the hoax, and that his premeditation for the act was an “aggravating issue” within the case.
“There is a facet of you that has this conceitedness, and selfishness and narcissism that is simply disgraceful,” the decide stated. “You are not a sufferer of a racial hate crime, you are not a sufferer of a homophobic hate crime. You are only a charlatan pretending to be a sufferer of a hate crime, and that is shameful.”
Smollett maintained his innocence below oath through the trial, however the jury convicted him on 5 of six felony costs after 9 hours of deliberations.
Whereas a conviction for disorderly conduct for a false crime report is punishable by as much as three years in jail, it’s uncommon for a decide to condemn an offender with no prior felony convictions to jail time for the cost.
Prosecutors urged the decide to provide Smollett an “acceptable” sentence, pointing to the truth that the actor has by no means taken duty for his actions and saying he might have damage efforts of actual hate crime victims to come back ahead.
Smollett’s attorneys argued that he ought to be given a extra lenient punishment such a probation, citing his lack of felony historical past and group service he has carried out. They learn a number of letters which attested to that a part of his life. Earlier than saying the sentence, the decide additionally spoke of the main figures in social justice circles that requested for a lenient sentence for Smollett.
“You do have fairly a report of actual group service and fairly a report of attaching with folks,” the decide stated. “I am aware of pleas of mercy, significantly from folks which are within the area.”
However in the end, the decide stated, this act confirmed Smollett’s “darkish facet.”
Linn had discretion in imposing a concurrent or consecutive sentence for every of the 5 counts.
Smollett legal professional Tina Glandian additionally argued Thursday that the responsible verdict ought to be overturned and a brand new trial granted based mostly on authorized errors main as much as and through the trial. Sean Wieber, deputy particular prosecutor, stated in response that her arguments had been “meritless” and that the conviction ought to stand.
Decide Linn denied the protection’s request, saying he believed Smollett obtained a good trial.
‘He shamed my brother’
In a information convention following the sentencing, Smollett’s brother, Jojo Smollett, informed reporters he was disillusioned with the end result.
“I didn’t anticipate him to be utterly lenient and hear. However on the identical time, he shamed my brother. He spoke about his conceitedness,” Jojo Smollett stated. “He would not know the struggles my brother is encountering. He would not know something that he is coping with.”
Jazz Smollett, the actor’s sister, known as the choice a “miscarriage of justice.”
“My brother is harmless,” Smollett’s sister stated. “This shouldn’t be a controversial assertion as a result of it’s the absolute fact.”
The jail sentence is the newest occasion in a winding case entangled in problems with racism, homophobia, celeb, policing and fraud.
After police decided his stories had been false, Smollett was indicted in March 2019 on 16 counts of felony disorderly conduct. However Prepare dinner County State’s Legal professional Kim Foxx’s workplace dropped all costs weeks later, saying he did group service, wouldn’t get his $10,000 bond again, was no hazard to the group and had no prior felonies.
“Who was answerable for this factor?” particular prosecutor Dan Webb requested.
“Jussie was,” Abimbola Osundairo informed the jury.
Smollett has no prior felonies
The first query at sentencing was whether or not Smollett, who has no prior felonies, can be sentenced to jail.
CNN authorized analyst and felony protection legal professional Joey Jackson beforehand informed CNN that Smollett “uncovered himself to jail time” when he testified in courtroom.
“What Jussie Smollett stated was resoundingly rejected by that jury. The jury didn’t purchase what he was promoting. That is not misplaced upon a decide. You got here into the courtroom and fabricated,” Jackson stated.
The town of Chicago additionally filed a lawsuit towards Smollett in April 2019 after the actor declined to pay the town $130,106.15 for the police investigation, courtroom paperwork present. Smollett filed a countersuit in November 2020.
Chicago’s Division of Legislation famous within the metropolis’s swimsuit that over two dozen cops and detectives spent weeks engaged on Smollett’s case in 2019, leading to 1,836 time beyond regulation hours.
Following Smollett’s conviction in December, the town stated it supposed to proceed pursuing its lawsuit.
Through the sentencing, the decide highlighted the quantity of police work that went into the investigation, telling Smollett that police sources are worthwhile and restricted.
“You took away lots of sources from different locations, from different actual victims of actual crimes and used up the police sources on your personal profit, and that is an enormous downside right here,” the decide stated.
CNN’s Christina Maxouris and Eric Levenson contributed to this report.