Why Smollet hate crime case won’t go to trial
WASHINGTON DC: A television actor claims to be the victim of a racist, homophobic hate crime. Chicago police say he staged the whole thing. The chief prosecutor says she believes he is guilty.
So why isn’t the matter going to trial?
The curious case of Jussie Smollett, who stars on Fox music drama Empire, got even weirder when prosecutors in Illinois’ Cook County — who handle crimes in Chicago — dropped the charges on Tuesday.
On Thursday, President Donald Trump said the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Justice Department will review the case — calling it “outrageous” and an “embarrassment to our Nation”.
All of this has revived the longs i m m e ring debate in America about how just the Unit- ed States justice system really is, whether the rich get off easy — and whether prosecutors should have so much discretion.
At both the federal and state level, prosecutors are widely free to pursue cases as they see fit. They supervise the initial investigations, take cases to trial or not, and recommend sentences.
“It’s a long-standing tradition, a cultural norm in the US,” says Rory Little, a professor at the University of California, Hastings College of the Law in San Francisco.
This can especially be a concern at the state level, where prosecutors are elected officials, and want to show constituents they are being tough on crime.
But in Smollett’s case, some say they did not go far enough.
Smollett, who is black and openly gay, said he was attacked on the streets of America’s thirdlargest city in January by two masked men hurling abuse at him.