Smollett to have chance on stand in strange trial

CHICAGO — After two brothers spent hours telling a jury how Jussie Smollett paid them to carry out a fake racist and anti-gay attack on himself in downtown Chicago, the big question when the actor’s trial resumes Monday will be whether or not he will tell his side of the story.

The reasons why Smollett might want to testify begin with just how bizarre the case is. During the trial that started last Monday, what emerged was the story of a television star who cast two brothers as his attackers, gave them dialogue to recite, and paid for the rope he told them to fashion into a noose and loop around his neck.

As strange as that sounds, it is the only narrative that has come to the jury from the siblings, Abimbola and Olabinjo Osundairo. And some legal experts say the only chance Smollett has of beating charges that he lied to the police is by telling jurors his version of what happened on Jan. 29, 2019.

“The jurors might be thinking, ‘Who does this guy think he is, not getting up and telling his story?’” said Terry Ekl, a prominent Chicago-area defense attorney not involved in the case.

Ekl and other legal experts said jurors are not supposed to read anything into a defendant’s decision not to testify but that when they return to the deliberation room they often do just that.

In Smollett’s case, it may be important for him to testify because, as bizarre as the brothers’ testimony was, they are the only witnesses to the incident who have testified. And, said Chicago-based defense attorney, Joe Lopez, Smollett’s attorneys “haven’t been able to impeach these brothers.”

Nor have they located a white person that a woman told police she saw carrying a rope in the area earlier that night, leaving the brothers and Smollett as the only three people that the jury can conclude know what happened.