Jussie Smollett sentence expected after actor convicted of lying to police: LIVE COVERAGE

CHICAGO — Actor Jussie Smollett is scheduled to return to courtroom on Thursday, the place he’ll be taught if a decide will order him locked up for his conviction of mendacity to police a few racist and homophobic assault that he orchestrated himself or permit him to stay free.

Smollett, who is predicted to proceed to disclaim his position within the staged assault in January 2019, faces as much as three years in jail for every of the 5 felony counts of disorderly conduct – the cost filed for mendacity to police – of which he was convicted. He was acquitted on a sixth depend.

Jussie Smollett verdict: ‘Empire’ actor responsible of disorderly conduct; protection vows enchantment

However as a result of Smollett doesn’t have an intensive felony historical past and the conviction is for a low-level nonviolent crime, specialists don’t count on that he can be despatched to jail. The actor might be ordered to serve as much as a 12 months in county jail or, if Cook dinner County Decide James Linn chooses, be positioned on probation and ordered to carry out some type of neighborhood service.

The sheer dimension and scope of the police investigation was a serious a part of the trial and is vital in a $130,000 pending lawsuit that the town filed towards Smollett to get better the price of police additional time, so the decide additionally might order the actor to pay a hefty positive and restitution.

Smollett’s lead lawyer has stated that he’ll ask the decide to dismiss the costs earlier than sentencing. However judges not often grant such motions. Which means this might be the ultimate chapter in a felony case, topic to enchantment, that made worldwide headlines when Smollett, who’s Black and homosexual, reported to police that two males sporting ski masks beat him, and hurled racial and homophobic slurs at him on a darkish Chicago road and ran off.

WATCH: Authorized knowledgeable weighs in on Smollett sentencing

In December, Smollett was convicted in a trial that included the testimony of two brothers who advised jurors Smollett paid them to hold out the assault, gave them cash for the ski masks and twine, instructed them to style the rope right into a noose. Prosecutors stated he advised them what racist and homophobic slurs to shout, and to yell that Smollett was in “MAGA Nation,” a reference to the marketing campaign slogan of Donald Trump’s presidential marketing campaign.

Smollett, who knew the boys from his work on the tv present “Empire” that filmed in Chicago, testified that he didn’t acknowledge them and didn’t know they have been the boys attacking him.

In the course of the listening to, prosecutors and Smollett’s attorneys will get an opportunity to current witnesses and permit Smollett to make a press release. He might repeat a number of the issues he advised jurors through the trial about how he was merely a sufferer of a violent crime.

Jussie Smollett trial’s solely Black juror discovered case ‘unhappy,’ nonetheless wonders about motive

Smollett might additionally inform the decide as he advised jurors about his intensive historical past of volunteering and donating to charitable causes. And he might say that the truth that the case left his profession in shambles is punishment sufficient for him keep away from custody.

Not like the trial, Linn has agreed to let photographers and a tv digicam inside courtroom for the listening to – which means the general public will for the primary time get to see and listen to Smollett communicate in courtroom.