Who is Jussie Smollett and what did he do?

Empire actor Smollett said he was walking home when two men started hurling racist and homophobic abuses at him in 2019

The conviction of actor-singer Jussie Smollett, who was found guilty of falsely reporting a hate crime against him in 2019, was overturned by an Illinois court.

Thursday’s reversal comes three years after Smollett was convicted in 2021.

Smollett, 39, is best known for his role in the Fox drama series Empire, in which he played the role of Jamal Lyon for four years from 2015. The role won him several accolades for his portrayal of a gay, Black musician. While he was renewed for a new season of Empire in 2019, he did not appear in any episodes.

His other notable films as an actor include Ridley Scott’s Alien: Covenant (2017) and Marshall (2017).

He made headlines in January 2019 after the actor, who is Black and gay, claimed two men assaulted him, put a noose around his neck and launched racial and homophobic slurs at him.

After some legal rigmarole, prosecutors alleged the attack was staged. A jury found him guilty of five charges of disorderly conduct and he was sentenced to 150 days in jail, 30 months of probation and ordered to pay roughly $130,000 in restitution.

He only served six days behind bars before he was freed pending an appeal.

Smollett listens as his sentence is read at the Leighton Criminal Court Building in Chicago in 2022

What charges did he face?

In 2019, he was charged with felony disorderly conduct after prosecutors said that he lied about an alleged hate crime in downtown Chicago.

Smollett had told the police that on the morning of 29 January 2019, he was walking home when two men who recognized him from Empire started hurling racist and homophobic abuses at him.

The actor said the two men then proceeded to hit him and hooked a makeshift noose around his neck and said, “This is MAGA country,” referring to then-president Donald Trump’s campaign slogan “Make America Great Again”.

The actor also alleged that he had received a racist and homophobic letter on the set of Empire.

In February 2019, Chicago police said Smollett had staged the attack to get publicity and a better salary. Shortly after the police announced they had arrested two persons of interest in the case, evidence emerged that prompted authorities to shift “the trajectory of the investigation.”

Days later, the actor was arrested on one count of filing a false police report.

The police said that he had sent the letter to himself on the set of Empire and then hired two brothers from Nigeria, Abimbola and Olabinjo Osundairo, to pretend to attack him for $3,500. The brothers have sued him for the attack.

The following month, a grand jury indicted him on 16 felony counts of falsely reporting to police.

Reports alleged that the actor tried to use his influence after Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx, at the request of former first lady Michelle Obama’s one-time chief of staff, allegedly communicated with a member of Smollett’s family.

Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx was forced to recuse herself from the case at one point (2021)

Foxx recused herself from the case in February 2019, and her office suddenly dropped the charges the next month.

Still, Chicago police stood by their claims that Smollett had orchestrated the alleged attack and asked him to pay $130,000 to cover the cost of police officers who spent time reviewing video and physical evidence in this case that could have been spent on other investigations.

The tides changed for Smollett in August 2019, when special prosecutor Dan Webb was appointed to look into the handling of the case.

By February 2020, the actor was charged with six counts of felony disorderly conduct in February 2020; Smollett pleaded not guilty to all counts.

The trial was delayed due to the Covid-19 pandemic as well as a controversy around the prosecutor in the case.

The charges were reinstated on February 11, 2020, and the actor pleaded not guilty on February 24. He was convicted in December 2021 on five of six counts and acquitted on the sixth.

Smollett’s booking photo by the Cook County Sheriff's Office (AP)

What were the reactions to his initial claims?

The actor initially drew support on social media after the attack but also spurred a political firestorm.

In the days after the incident, in early February, he released a statement: “The outpouring of love and support from my village has meant more than I will ever be able to truly put into words.” He added: “I am working with authorities and have been 100% factual and consistent on every level.”

While Democrats cited it as another example of racism and bigotry under the Trump administration, Republicans alleged that the attack was an attempt to villainize the former president’s supporters as racist.

When the claims unraveled, Smollett became a point of ridicule from fellow Black celebrities, including NBA analyst Charles Barkley and comedian Dave Chappelle.

Smollett told the BBC in 2020 that it was not his job “to convince people” and that he and his family have continued to receive threats. “The thing that really gets me is the fact that there are black and brown women and men behind bars for things they did not do,” he said.

Special prosecutor Dan Webb said he did not agree with the ruling

Why was his conviction reversed?

Smollett’s appeal hinged on the claim that a special prosecutor should not have been allowed to intervene after the Cook County state’s attorney initially dropped the 16 charges against him having performed community service and forfeited a $10,000 bond.

The state’s highest court heard arguments in September before announcing the decision on November 21.

“We are aware that this case has generated significant public interest and that many people were dissatisfied with the resolution of the original case and believed it to be unjust,” Justice Elizabeth Rochford wrote in the court’s 5-0 decision.

“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.”

What has the reaction been to the reversal?

Smollett’s lawyers welcomed the decision claiming the original prosecution was “vindictive”.

“This was not a prosecution based on facts, rather it was a vindictive persecution and such a proceeding has no place in our criminal justice system,” Smollett’s attorney, Nenye Uche, said in a statement. Uche said “rule of law was the big winner today” and thanked the court for “restoring order to Illinois’ criminal law jurisprudence.”

However, the special prosecutor, Dan Webb, said he disagreed with the court’s ruling while noting that it “has nothing to do with Mr. Smollett’s innocence.”

“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,” Webb said in a statement Thursday after Smollett’s conviction was reversed.

“We respectfully disagree with the Court’s factual and legal reasoning which upends long-standing Illinois precedent,”

“Make no mistake—today’s ruling has nothing to do with Mr. Smollett’s innocence. The Illinois Supreme Court did not find any error with the overwhelming evidence presented at trial that Mr. Smollett orchestrated a fake hate crime and reported it to the Chicago Police Department as a real hate crime, or the jury’s unanimous verdict that Mr. Smollett was guilty of five counts of felony disorderly conduct.

“In fact, Mr. Smollett did not even challenge the sufficiency of the evidence against him in his appeal to the Illinois Supreme Court.”

Additional reporting by agencies