JUSSIE OUT OF JAIL
Granted bail amid hate-hoax appeal
Jussie Smollett was released from jail Wednesday night, hours after an Illinois state appellate court ruled he could go free while his lawyers appeal his conviction for staging a hate crime.
Smollett, 39, left jail in Chicago flanked by five large men and said nothing as he was ushered into a light-colored SUV that drove away from the Cook County Detention Center around 8 p.m. local time.
Smollett had been behind bars for six days — during which time lawyers said he did not eat and consumed only ice water — after being sentenced to five months in jail for being found guilty on five counts of felony disorderly conduct for lying to police.
Defense lawyers argued that Smollett was unconstitutionally charged twice for the same crime because charges against him were dropped in 2019 in connection with his alleged false report that bigoted fans of then-President Donald Trump attacked him with a noose and bleach in 2018.
He was brought up on new charges a year later under Illinois’ disorderly conduct statute after a special prosecutor looked into the case. A jury then found that the former “Empire” actor, who is black and gay, had paid two men to beat him up in the hopes of raising his public profile.
“When this case was initially reindicted, when this case was prosecuted, when this case was sentenced, I wondered to myself if Chicago had seceded from the union because you can not punish someone twice,” lead defense lawyer Nenye Uche said outside the jail.
Smollett’s lawyers filed an emergency motion Monday to postpone his sentence, and an appellate judge found that because Smollett had been convicted of “nonviolent” offenses, he could be released from jail on a $150,000 individual bond during the appeal, according to the court order.
Under the terms of the bond, Smollett would not have to dig into his pockets to get out of jail and would only owe money if he skipped his court dates.
Uche and three other defense lawyers told reporters they believed the second case and sentence was “unconstitutional” and “racist,” arguing that Smollett was “persecuted” for making a complaint against purported white assailants.