An appeals court upheld the disorderly conduct convictions Friday of actor Jussie Smollett, who was accused of staging a racist, homophobic attack against himself in 2019 and lying about it to Chicago police.

Smollett, who appeared in the TV show “Empire,” challenged the role of a special prosecutor, jury selection, evidence and many other aspects of the case. But all were turned aside in a 2-1 opinion from the Illinois Appellate Court.

Smollett had reported to police that he was the victim of a racist and homophobic attack by two men wearing ski masks. The search for the attackers soon turned into an investigation of Smollett himself, leading to his arrest on charges he had orchestrated the whole thing.

  • FuglyDuck@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    24
    ·
    edit-2
    1 year ago

    For people wondering, he hired two guys to beat him up… and the cops figured it was all staged because those two guys… flipped when the cops tracked them down and arrested them. a crucial piece of evidence was a $3,500 check Smollet paid them.

    because, you know. whose going to take a rap for a hate crime when they were paid by the supposed victim to do it? https://abcnews.go.com/US/timeline-alleged-jussie-smollett-attack/story?id=61124090

  • spacecadet@lemm.ee
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    21
    arrow-down
    2
    ·
    1 year ago

    I remember being called racist on Reddit for pointing out that this seemed fake or he was making it up. The idea a bunch of Klan members riding around in trucks on Chicago’s south side at 3am to find Jesse Smollett randomly and put a noose around his neck but leave his subway sandwich in tact seemed like bad writing you would find on the CW

  • magnetosphere@kbin.social
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    15
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    edit-2
    1 year ago

    Good.

    People who have been the victim of a real hate crime should despise this guy. All he’s done is give smug, ignorant jerks one more reason to deny the seriousness of the race problem in America.