Jussie Smollett Sentenced To 150 Days In Jail For Hoax Hate Crime
Jussie Smollett has been sentenced to 150 days in jail for a hoax hate crime committed back in January of 2019, per TMZ.
The sentence also includes 30 months of felony probation, $120,106 restitution to the city of Chicago; he will also have to pay a $25,000 fine.
Jussie declined to speak in open court before sentencing, on his lawyer’s advice.
The sentencing follows as the former Empire actor’s guilty verdict on five of the six charges of disorderly conduct for making a false report to Chicago police that he was the victim of a hate crime.
Jurors found the Empire actor guilty of 5 of the 6 felony counts against him.
The first five counts were for filing a false report to authorities on Jan. 29, 2019. The sixth, which he was acquitted of, was from a was for a separate interview two weeks later with Chicago PD on Feb. 14 when he told a detective he was a victim of aggravated burglary per The New York Times.
Just last month, TMZ reported that the actor filed the 83-page document claiming the court “made numerous trial errors leading up to the trial and during the pendency of the trial.”
Smollett claims that there was a violation of his constitutional rights after his leal team was allegedly denied the chance to actively participate in the jury selection process. His team was also allegedly not permitted to ask questions of the potential jurors which could have led them to discover any biases that had of the actor.
Another claim the actor made was that the prosecutor in the initial trial was, “insufficient and inconsistent so that no reasonable trier of fact could have found Mr. Smollett guilty beyond a reasonable doubt and thus there is evidence that the jury verdict was contrary to the manifest weight of the evidence.”
