American actor and singer Jussie Smollett, known among fans for starring in the musical drama television series Empire, was sentenced to five months in jail, including 30 months probation, by Judge James Linn on Thursday. The former Empire actor has been charged for staging a hate crime and lying to Chicago city authorities about being jumped by two men who yelled racist and homophobic slurs. Smollet has also been ordered USD 120,000 as restitution to the city along with a fine of USD 25,000.
After Linn issued orders for the jail term, Smollet stood up and explained his innocence before stating to the court, "I am not suicidal, and if anything happens to me when I go [to jail], I didn’t do it to myself and you must all remember that." The actor's lawyer had appealed for a new trial during the sentencing, with the judge denying the request. Smollet was first accused of falsely claiming that two men had attacked him late at night, while he was on his way back home from a Subway sandwich shop. He was indicted in March 2019 with 16 counts of disorderly conduct for allegedly filing a false report, with the charges later being dropped that same month. However, a special prosecutor, Dan Webb, had later reopened the case against Smollet in early 2020 and he was charged once again with disorderly conduct.
Smollet was alleged in the indictment that he "knew at the time … there was no reasonable ground for believing that such an offense had been committed" when he informed authorities that he had been attacked by "two unknown offenders." The actor had claimed in the fake attack that the men dressed in all-black and wearing masks had verbally abused him with racist and homophobic slurs, while also stating that the individuals had strung a rope around his neck before dismounting him with bleach. Officials had stated that the incident was a staged one and done for the sole purpose of publicity. Prosecutors said in their findings that Smollet had paid USD 3,500 to two brothers Abimbola 'Bola' and Olabinjo 'Ola' Osundairo for the staged assault incident. After the actor's arrest, he was removed from the cast of Empire, with Fox CEO Charlie Collier stating that he would not be coming back for the show’s sixth and final season.
Watch below in the video the sentencing of Jussie Smollett in the fake hate crime:
