Why Jussie Smollett’s conviction was overturned

The Illinois Supreme Court on Thursday reversed actor Jussie Smollett’s conviction on charges that he falsely reported to Chicago police officers that he was the victim of a hate crime.
The court’s decision to overturn the conviction stemmed from what the court said was a due process violation. The court’s decision said the prosecutors with the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office had decided “to resolve the charges” by requiring Smollett to perform 15 hours of community service and forfeit his $10,000 bond.
But after this agreement was made, a special prosecutor brought the case back.
Smollett alleged to police in January 2019 that two men attacked him and called him slurs, and also said “This is MAGA country.” He said a noose was tossed around his neck. After a police investigation, Smollett was arrested on charges that he had staged the assault. Two brothers Abimbola ‘Bola’ and Olabinjo ‘Ola’ Osundairo said they helped to stage the attack. Smollett claimed and still claims to be innocent.
The court’s decision handed down Thursday doesn’t address those events so much as what happened after, when Smollett faced prosecution after reaching a deal.
While counsel for Smollett tried to raise this issue earlier — saying he was “duped by the State because it reindicted him after he had forfeited a substantial bond to the City of Chicago in exchange for getting the charges dismissed” — the effort did not work.
Smollett faced a jury trial and was convicted of five counts of felony disorderly conduct. He was sentenced to 30 months’ probation, 150 days in Cook County Jail, and he was ordered to pay a $25,000 fine and $120,106 in restitution to Chicago.
The Illinois Supreme Court said the state is bound to the agreement it made because Smollett performed his end of the agreement — in other words, the court said the state should have dismissed the charges. While the state argued it should have been able to bring the charges again anyway, the court said Illinois case law establishes this is unfair.
“Because the initial charges were dismissed as part of an agreement with defendant and defendant performed his part of the agreement, the second prosecution was barred,” said the Illinois Supreme Court in its decision.
The Illinois Supreme Court said it knew the case generated public interest and people believed the resolution of the original case to be unjust.
“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,” said the court.
Nenye Uche, an attorney for Smollett, told CNN the case shouldn’t have gone to trial. “This was a vindictive persecution. This was no prosecution,” said Uche, adding, “I’m sure Jussie would want an apology, but he’s a realistic man, right? He knows he’s not going to get it.”
“We are disappointed in the Illinois Supreme Court’s decision today to overturn Jussie Smollett’s convictions and sentence, including the award of over $120,000 in restitution to the City of Chicago for its overtime expenses in investigating Mr. Smollett’s fake hate crime,” said special prosecutor Dan K. Webb, the prosecutor appointed months after the agreement between Smollett and prosecutors was made, in a statement.
Webb said he respectfully disagreed with the court and said Illinois law does not bar re-prosecution under the circumstances.