Jussie Smollett Hit With Legal Loss in Hoax Attack Case

Jussie Smollett has been hit with a legal loss in his hoax attack case. TMZ reports that, after he filed an appeal, the actor's conviction has been upheld by an Illinois appeals court, with the three-judge panel voting 2-1 in favor of upholding the previous ruling. This means that he could be sent back to jail, following his release earlier this year, which was due to his ongoing legal battle.

The main argument in Smollett's appeal was that he could not be prosecuted because Cook County State Attorney Kim Foxx chose not to prosecute the case, after his initial indictment. This move garnered a lot of criticism, with a special prosecutor eventually being appointed and taking the case to a grand jury for another indictment. The two justices who voted to uphold the conviction asserted that Foxx's decision not to prosecute was not equivalent to an agreement that he could never be charged. The justice who voted in favor of Smollett stated that they believed Foxx's choice ot to pursue the case was a guarantee to Jussie that the case was closed.

Back in 2019, Smollet claimed that two men violently attacked him on the street outside his apartment in Chicago, resulting in a hospital trip to be treated for his wounds. Police later charged him for allegedly fabricating the story, which he and his legal team had vehemently denied. The state Attorney General initially dropped the charges against Smollett, but new charges came after a judge found the prosecution's decision to be invalid.

The Chicago Tribune later reported that Smollett's lawyers filed the necessary paperwork with the state's high court, motioning that the new indictment be dismissed on the grounds of double jeopardy. However, they were not successful in having the case thrown out. The case went to trial in late 2021, with the former Empire actor being charged with lying to police about being the victim of a racist and homophobic attack. 

He was formally charged with six counts of felony disorderly conduct for allegedly filing a false police report, per ABC News. Smollet's defense team argued that the two men who were also implicated in the incident, Abimbola and Ola Osundairo, were lying about being friends whom Smollet paid to help him carry out the fake attack plan. The jury found the actor found guilty on 5 out of 6 charges.

Smollett was sentenced to 30 months of probation, and ordered to spend the first 150 days of his sentence in the Cook County Jail. However, roughly a week later, a judge ruled that the Empire alum could be released on bond while his attorneys appealed his conviction. Two days prior, Smollett's lawyers had filed legal documents to postpone Smollett's five-month sentence, claiming that he would be a target while in custody due to his celebrity status and the high-profile nature of the case. The actor has since kept a very low profile for the past few years, but entered rehab in October after an "extremely difficult past few years."