Illinois Supreme Court overturns Jussie Smollett’s conviction

| November 21, 2024 | 36 Comments

We posted about Jussie Smollett here a few times, the latest being in 2022. Although it looked like Smollett was going to get away with this hoax, he ultimately was tried and convicted. However, the Illinois Supreme Court overturned this conviction. They argued that a dismissal of the case was part of an agreement that the state entered into with the defendant, with the understanding that a follow on prosecution would not happen. Illinois’ high court argued that the second prosecution was a due process violation. This required the reversal of the conviction.

From Fox News:

“Today we resolve a question about the State’s responsibility to honor the agreements it makes with defendants,” the court wrote in documents obtained by Fox News Digital. “Specifically, we address whether a dismissal of a case by nolle prosequi allows the State to bring a second prosecution when the dismissal was entered as part of an agreement with the defendant and the defendant has performed his part of the bargain. We hold that a second prosecution under these circumstances is a due process violation, and we therefore reverse defendant’s conviction.”

Smollett, who is Black and gay, reported to Chicago police that he was the victim of a racist and homophobic attack by two men wearing ski masks in January 2019.

Charges against Smollett were originally dropped. After special prosecutor Kim Foxx requested a new inquiry, the “Empire” star was convicted on five felony counts and later sentenced to 150 days in county jail. The Illinois Supreme Court decided Thursday that the special prosecutor’s decision to retry Smollett on charges violated his rights.

“Today we resolve a question about the State’s responsibility to honor the agreements it makes with defendants,” Mark Geragos, Smollett’s lawyer, told Fox News Digital. “We hold that a second prosecution under these circumstances is a due process violation, and we therefore reverse defendant’s conviction.”

Smollett filed a petition on Feb. 5, requesting the Illinois high court intervene in his ongoing legal drama. The actor’s conviction for a staged hate crime was upheld in December.

“What should have been a straightforward case has been complicated by the intersection of politics and public outrage,” Smollett’s attorneys wrote in the February petition.

Additional Reading:

Overhultz, L. (2024, November 21). Jussie Smollett conviction overturned by Illinois Supreme Court. Fox News. Link.

 

Category: "Teh Stoopid", Crime

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Hate_me

I’m no lawyer and there is clearly a lot of specific detail left out of the report.

I’m not sure what he possibly could have done to legally nullify what he did.

If the DA truly overstepped, well, our judicial system is (used to be) one of the greatest elements of this great American experiment. I don’t consider it justice in this case, but if the system is working as intended, I support it.

Something tells me I’ll be very disappointed when more details come to light.

Green Thumb

But now the world knows he is a turd.

RCAF-CHAIRBORNE

Let’s see how many acting gigs he gets now.
He may as well become a gay porn bottom

Green Thumb

Shooting his films from the studio at All-Points Logistics in Merritt Island, Florida.

SgtM

Who says he isn’t already?

Hack Stone

The only difference is now he would be getting paid for it.

RCAF-CHAIRBORNE

If Juicy ‘ accidentally’ leaked a video of him getting spit roasted by the 2 Nigerian dudes instead of the laughably bad hate crime, he might have gotten some good/bad press.
Plenty of celebs have sex tapes out there that did wonders for their careers. Remember Pam and Tommy? Faking hate crimes has never worked.
Remember Morton Downey Jr?
Neither do I.

Anonymous

Don’t forget your K-Y, Jussie!

BennSue

As a lawyer, I see the argument for dismissal, but it fails in practice. The DA/Smollett had an agreement for him to pay a fine/community service in exchange for no charges. This was done between the parties with no Court involved. There cannot be double jeopardy if there is no trial/Court interaction. This could lead to where someone could murder and strike a deal with the DA and be immune from further prosecution. This is a bad ruling but won’t be appealed because it would not be time/cost effective and Smollett is damaged goods.

rgr769

There is no place to appeal. This is the final decision by the Illinois Supreme Court. There is no federal issue for a discretionary petition to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Skivvy Stacker

I don’t think there was anything of a legal position involved.
I think he just BITCHED long and loud enough in the democratic, left wing, Chicago “judicial” system.

HT3

He’s much more famous as a meme for lairs and frauds than he ever was as an actor…
Just think of any ridiculous lie you hear spewed out of somebody’s suck hole and then add “this is MAG country” to it and it become exponentially funnier/more ridiculous.

Hate_me

He was in The Mighty Ducks as a kid. He’s alive and (sadly) not in prison; he’s no Neil Patrick Harris, but he’s doing pretty well for a gay child actor.

5JC

Dave Chappelle does the definitive stand up on that “that very famous French actor”. As nearly always he is not only dead on but damn funny.

https://youtu.be/wZXoErL2124?feature=shared

Deckie

Juicy Smoyayy 😂

KoB

Too bad that my shelf of shocked faces is as bare as that field I used to have.

IIRC a goodly number of us said that this lying POS would walk…and here we are.

Attention whores gonna attention whore.

5JC

Technically he did six months so not a full walk, he would be best to count his lucky stars and move on. But attention whores can’t do that.

Hate_me

I dunno, isn’t prison kinda just a big, happy, porcupine paradise for someone like him?

rgr769

Not six months. Juicy was jailed for only six days in the county pound, then he was released on bond for the pendency of his appeal.

President Elect Toxic Deplorable Racist SAH Neande

There’s nothing that I can do about this reversal, but I’m not going to get upset. The well deserved damage has been done to Mr Smoll-Faggett (= Smoll-ett), and there’s no recovering from it. I hope he ends his days living in a cardboard box under a bridge down by a river.

Last edited 2 days ago by President Elect Toxic Deplorable Racist SAH Neande

He can join Matt Foley.

https://youtu.be/Xv2VIEY9-A8

Sailorcurt

Although I don’t think justice is served by him being let off, I agree with the decision.

As ill-advised as the “deal” he was initially offered was, the state offered a deal, he accepted it. Done and done. Prosecuting him after the fact is effectively double jeopardy.

If a weapon can be levelled against someone who’s actions I oppose, it can just as easily be levelled against someone who’s actions I support.

Army- Air Force Guy

It was basically the same sorta-kinda legal loophole that got Bill Cosby out of the can.

Roh-Dog

“What should have been a straightforward case has been complicated by the intersection of politics and public outrage,” Smollett’s attorneys wrote…

The Chewbacca defense after the bell, eh? Your client, counselor, is a fucking liar and an attention whore whose actions, wittingly or un-so, aimed to further the divide in this great and TOLERANT country.

It was his lack of common sense or moral good that led us to this point, a clown show of his and only his making.

It is ‘outrageous’ his very ‘public’ behavior was excused for ‘political’ expedience. You and I both know this, you Barred Asshole.

Found this:

2495257-Steven-Wright-Quote-99-of-lawyers-give-the-rest-a-bad-name-3844444166
David

Note the AG is Kim Foxx, another Soros candidate. Shows that many of Soros’ purchases are lousy attorneys, too.

rgr769

And Juicy got his deal because one of Moochelle’s former WH bootlickers called Foxxie and asked her to give this lying fraud of a turd a no jail deal. So, she ordered one of her flunkies to do so. Then, after the fact, the crooked political interference came to light.

All of Shotcago and most of Ill. is corrupt, including its courts.

MIRanger

Chicago is not most of Illinois! “Chicago is corrupt and most of the people that come from it” would be a better statement.

Odie

Seems like one county is trying to tell Chicago “hold my beer”. This county is predominantly farm land. What will this county do with all its new found cash infusion?

https://www.ksdk.com/article/news/local/illinois/montgomery-co-landowners-concerned-by-increase-in-woodland-acreage-tax/63-bd0eed3f-a254-4f78-a3de-e7a6acffa3a8

rgr769

Well, the whole state elected that Prog governor who says he is going to obstruct any deportation action of the federal government.

Odie

And Homan said game on.

Dick

Not the land of Lincoln anymore.

DocV

Illinois is just California lite…

Odie

Not trying to hijack the thread, but I’m sure some are rubbing one out in relief.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/matt-gaetz-withdraw-attorney-general-nomination/

Anonymous

New meaning to “Gettin’ Jussied.”

Twist

On the bright side, he is still a pariah and his name punchline. Hell, the Urban Dictionary turned his name into a verb describing  Lying / Making up stories in hope of receiving more attention or “clout” and sympathy and not knowing when to stop when you’ve got caught. Kind of like how they turned Aaron Rupar’s name into a verb describing someone as a lying sack of shit.

Skivvy Stacker

Doesn’t make a damn bit of difference, everybody knows the little fairy is guilty.
The fucker has been “cancelled” by his own idiocy.
He “protested too much”, and kept up a constant stream of Shakespearian Dramatic Exposition that could only have come from the fevered mind of some sick minded DIPSHIT.