The Supreme Court of Illinois has overturned the conviction of Jussie Smollett, the disgraced actor who fabricated a hate crime against himself to win public sympathy and smear Trump supporters.
The long and winding saga began in 2019, when Smollett claimed that he was attacked outside his Chicago apartment by Trump supporters who threw a noose on his neck, shouting "this is MAGA country!"
A police investigation found that Smollett fabricated the attack by hiring two Nigerian men to impersonate his assailants.
Smollett was initially charged with filing a false police report, but the charges were soon dropped by Cook County prosecutor Kim Foxx, who was accused of showing favoritism.
Foxx infamously said she had "recused" herself over contacts with Smollett's family, before revealing her "recusal" was only informal, and she did not remove her office from the case.
She later agreed to dismiss charges, reaching a deal that allowed Smollett to serve 16 hours of community service and forfeit his $10,000 bond.
The decision led to outrage, with then-Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel calling it a "whitewash of justice." An independent investigation by prosecutor Dan Webb led to charges being filed a second time, and Smollett was found guilty on five counts of disorderly conduct in December 2021.
The actor was sentenced to 150 days in jail but served only six before he was freed pending his appeal.
In its ruling to toss the conviction, the Supreme Court said that Smollett's constitutional rights against double jeopardy were violated when charges were filed against him a second time.
The court emphasized that it is not making a determination on Smollett's innocence.
“We are aware that this case has generated significant public interest and that many people were dissatisfied with the resolution of the original case and believed it to be unjust,” Justice Elizabeth Rochford wrote in the decision.
“Nevertheless, what would be more unjust than the resolution of any one criminal case would be a holding from this court that the state was not bound to honor agreements upon which people have detrimentally relied.”
In the wake of the court's ruling, Smollett and Foxx have cried vindication - as Foxx accuses Webb of seeking an unjust outcome through "legal machinations."
"What they were doing in going to the court to re-prosecute someone because you didn’t like the outcome would have set a horrendous precedent, in which anyone could come in and undermine the work of a prosecutor’s office,” Foxx said.
If the case had been handled correctly the first time, justice might have been served. Instead, what we're now left with is a mockery of justice.
