Appeals court upholds actor Jussie Smollett's convictions and jail sentence

     Jessie Smollett, a famous actor, was accused, and found guilty of staging a racist, homophobic attack against himself in 2019. He reported to Chicago police an accident where he claimed he was attacked by two men in black ski masks, and reported during the attack they were yelling racist and homophobic slurs at him. After an investigation conducted due to the police report, authorities said Jessie Smollett in fact paid the two men whom he knew from working on “Empire.” In 2021, Smollett was convicted of five counts of disorderly conduct, which is the charge someone received when lying to police. His sentence was 150 days, approximately 5 months in jail for his actions. However, he appealed the court's conviction and only spent six days in jail while the appeal was pending. Smollett’s lawyers argued he had already resolved the case through community service in 2019, and prosecutors agreed to avoid further charges in exchange for his actions. Appellate Justice Freddrenna Lyle disagreed, deeming the case unfair.

I was initially informed of this case when it first came out that Jessie Smollett supposedly planned and faked a hate crime against himself. I found this case interesting not only because I was and still am fascinated with the legal system, but also because I had never heard of a case like this. The fact Jessie Smollett was so desperate to gain publicity and attention off of a fake hate crime case was very shocking to me. Hate crimes are a very serious and real issue that people unfortunately deal with on a day to day, and faking that as a publicity stunt is disgusting to me. As a member of a minority and the LGBTQ+ community, I would assume Jessie would understand those issues are nothing anyone should be faking, because he completely degrades the severity of those issues. However, Jessie Smollet’s run in with the law has given him more publicity than ever before, and as some would say “all publicity is good publicity.”

Published by Marisa Potts, December 1st, 2023

Originally written, 3:06 PM ET, December 1st, 2023, by The Associated Press

https://www.npr.org/2023/12/01/1216580590/jussie-smollett-empire-appeal-convictions-jail-sentence