Illinois Supreme Court Overturns Jussie Smollett’s Conviction in Alleged MAGA Hate Crime Hoax

The Illinois Supreme Court overturned Jussie Smollett’s conviction on Thursday, upending the high-profile case that stemmed from the actor’s alleged staging of a hate crime in which he claimed he was attacked by two men shouting, “This is MAGA country!”The actor was convicted back in 2021 of numerous felonies and sentenced to 50 days in a county jail for telling police an elaborate lie about being a victim of an attack by a group of racist and homophobic men wearing MAGA hats. As recently as December of last year, his motion for an appeal was denied by an appellate court, according to Variety. His attorneys have claimed that Mr. Smollett’s Fifth Amendment rights were violated.“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,” Reads the Illinois Supreme Court’s ruling, according to the Chicago Tribune. The panel remanded the case to an Illinois circuit court to enter a judgment of dismissal.“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.”The court referred to Bill Cosby’s aggravated assault case in Pennsylvania as precedent.“As the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania recently stated when enforcing a prosecutorial promise not to prosecute, ‘It cannot be said that society holds a strong interest in the prosecution of crimes. It is also true that no such interest, however important, ever can eclipse society’s interest in ensuring that the constitutional rights of the people are vindicated. Society’s interest in prosecution does not displace the remedy due to constitutionally aggrieved persons,” the ruling said according to ABC7 Chicago.In 2019, Mr. Smollett and the Cook County State Attorney had reached an agreement to have the charges dropped if he paid a bond of $10,000 and completed community service. A special prosecutor was then appointed a year later.His lawyers said that Mr. Smollett had his rights under double jeopardy, which protects a person from being punished for the same crime twice. The special prosecutor disagreed, saying he was never prosecuted at the time of his original plea agreement and that a condition of the deal was an understanding that he could be charged for the original crime.

Illinois Supreme Court Overturns Jussie Smollett’s Conviction in Alleged MAGA Hate Crime Hoax

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