Jussie Smollett Conviction Overturned Years After Alleged Staged Attack

The Illinois Supreme Court has overturned Jussie Smollett’s 2021 conviction for allegedly staging a racist and homophobic attack on himself in 2019, ruling on Thursday (Nov. 21) that his rights had been violated when a special prosecutor stepped in to retry him despite the Cook County State’ Attorney’s Office initially dropping all charges against him.

“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,” the court wrote in its decision, according to The Chicago Tribune. “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.”

The decision comes more than five years after the singer-actor first reported that two men had assaulted him, yelled racist and homophobic slurs and placed a noose around his neck in downtown Chicago. Two years later, a jury found Smollett — who is Black and gay — guilty of five of six counts of disorderly conduct for allegedly lying to police about the incident, with prosecutors accusing him of hiring the two men to attack him because he was unhappy with his employer’s response to hate mail he’d received, according to the Associated Press.

In addition to 30 months of probation, Smollett — who has maintained his innocence — was ordered to pay $130,160 in restitution and sentenced to 150 days in jail — which he never served due to the lengthy appeals process that has played out in the years since. A lower court previously upheld the convictions in a split 2-1 decision, but the Supreme Court agreed to hear the actor’s appeal — and on Thursday, sided in his favor.

Billboard has reached out to Smollett’s lawyer and rep for comment.