An appellate court in Illinois held against hate crime hoaxer and disgraced actor Jussie Smollett’s appeal on Friday, upholding his disorderly conduct convictions and related jail sentences, so now Smollett is headed back to jail over the now-infamous “this is MAGA country” hate crime hoax.
As background, Smollett was found guilty in 2021 of filing a false police report over the incident. He apparently hired two strongman brothers from Nigeria to stage the hate crime as he returned home from a Subway in the dark of night in February of 2019. Smollett claimed that the two attackers were white and that one said, “this is MAGA country,” while another placed a noose around his neck. The attack was soon revealed to have been staged. Watch Smollett’s sentencing here:
So, now that his conviction and sentences have been upheld, Smollett is headed back to jail to finish his 150-day stint, to which he was sentenced for the five felony counts of disorderly conduct, which is a charge those who lie to the police in Illinois can face. As Smollett only served six days in jail while his appeal was pending, he has 144 days left.
Smollett’s team hasn’t given up on keeping him out of jail, however. His spokeswoman, Holly Baird, noted that the appellate ruling was not unanimous and that Smollett’s team plans on taking the appeal to the Illinois Supreme Court, saying, “We are preparing to escalate this matter to the Supreme Court.”
The justice who would have ruled in favor of Smollett and thrown out the convictions is Appellate Justice Freddrenna Lyle. Justice Lycle argued that it was “fundamentally unfair” for Smollett to have been investigated by a special prosecutor and charged after he has struck a deal to close the case in 2019 with Cook County prosecutors. “It was common sense that Smollett was bargaining for a complete resolution of the matter, not simply a temporary one,” Lyle argued.
The other two appellate Justices, Justice David Navarro and Justice Mary Ellen Coghlan disagreed. They argued that there was no non-prosecution deal Smollett struck, saying, “The record does not contain any evidence that (prosecutors) agreed Smollett would not be further prosecuted in exchange for forfeiting his bond and performing community service.”
The news that Smollett is headed back to jail led to gloating on X, mainly from MAGA accounts. Conservative personality Collin Rugg, for example, said, “JUST IN: Hoaxer Jussie Smollett lost his appeal and is going back to jail after an appeals court affirmed his disorderly conduct conviction. Good. Keep him there. In December of 2021, Smollett was found guilty of 5 felony counts after he faked a hate crime to make Trump supporters look bad. Here is Smollett whining back in March of 2022 after he was sentenced to jail. Clown.”
Many also took the opportunity to highlight the tweets of those that fell for the hoax. For example, some retweeted the Kamala Harris post from 2019 which said, “.@JussieSmollett is one of the kindest, most gentle human beings I know. I’m praying for his quick recovery. This was an attempted modern day lynching. No one should have to fear for their life because of their sexuality or color of their skin. We must confront this hate.”
Featured image credit: By Dominick D – Jussie Smollett, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=48253478
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