Actor Jussie Smollett was released from jail following six nights behind bars after an appeals court agreed with his lawyers that he should be free pending an appeal of his conviction for falsely telling police that he was attacked.
The former Empire actor walked out of the Cook County Jail on Wednesday surrounded by security.
He did not comment as he got into a waiting vehicle, but his attorneys said that Smollett was the target of a racist justice system and people playing politics.
Photo: AFP
The appeals court ruling came after a Cook County judge last week sentenced Smollett to immediately begin serving 150 days in jail for his conviction on five felony counts of disorderly conduct for lying to police.
In an outburst immediately after the sentence was handed down, Smollett proclaimed his innocence and said: “I am not suicidal.”
“And if anything happens to me when I go in there, I did not do it to myself,” he said. “And you must all know that.”
The appeals court said that Smollett could be released after posting a personal recognizance bond of US$150,000, meaning he did not have to put down money, but agrees to come to court as required.
Smollett defense attorney Nenye Uche, speaking to reporters outside the jail after Smollett left, said that the Smollett family is “very, very happy with today’s developments.”
Uche said during his time at the jail, Smollett had not eaten and drank only water, although he did not say why.
He criticized the special prosecutor’s decision to charge Smollett again after the initial charges were dropped by Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx and he paid a fine.
He also called Judge James Linn’s sentence excessive for a low-level felony, adding that the appellate court does not “play politics.”
“The real question is: Should black men be walked into jail for a class 4 felony? Shame on you if you think they should,” Uche said.
During sentencing, special prosecutor Dan Webb recommended that Smollett serve “an appropriate amount of prison time.”
“His conduct denigrated hate crimes,” Webb said after the hearing. “His conduct will discourage others who are victims of hate crimes from coming forward and reporting those crimes to law enforcement.”
Smollett’s attorneys had argued that he would have completed the sentence by the time the appeal process was completed and that Smollett could be in danger of physical harm if he remained locked up in Cook County Jail.
The office of the special prosecutor called the claim that Smollett’s health and safety were at risk “factually incorrect,” in a response to his motion, adding that Smollett was being held in protective custody at the jail.
The court’s decision marks the latest chapter in a strange story that began in January 2019 when Smollett reported to Chicago police that he was the victim of a racist and homophobic attack by two men wearing ski masks.
The hunt for the attackers soon turned into an investigation of Smollett himself, and his arrest on charges that he had orchestrated the attack and lied to police about it.
Kehinde Sanni spends his days smoothing out dents and repainting scratched bumpers in a modest autobody shop in Lagos. He has never left Nigeria, yet he speaks glowingly of Burkina Faso military leader Ibrahim Traore. “Nigeria needs someone like Ibrahim Traore of Burkina Faso. He is doing well for his country,” Sanni said. His admiration is shaped by a steady stream of viral videos, memes and social media posts — many misleading or outright false — portraying Traore as a fearless reformer who defied Western powers and reclaimed his country’s dignity. The Burkinabe strongman swept into power following a coup in September 2022
‘FRAGMENTING’: British politics have for a long time been dominated by the Labor Party and the Tories, but polls suggest that Reform now poses a significant challenge Hard-right upstarts Reform UK snatched a parliamentary seat from British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labor Party yesterday in local elections that dealt a blow to the UK’s two establishment parties. Reform, led by anti-immigrant firebrand Nigel Farage, won the by-election in Runcorn and Helsby in northwest England by just six votes, as it picked up gains in other localities, including one mayoralty. The group’s strong showing continues momentum it built up at last year’s general election and appears to confirm a trend that the UK is entering an era of multi-party politics. “For the movement, for the party it’s a very, very big
ENTERTAINMENT: Rio officials have a history of organizing massive concerts on Copacabana Beach, with Madonna’s show drawing about 1.6 million fans last year Lady Gaga on Saturday night gave a free concert in front of 2 million fans who poured onto Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro for the biggest show of her career. “Tonight, we’re making history... Thank you for making history with me,” Lady Gaga told a screaming crowd. The Mother Monster, as she is known, started the show at about 10:10pm local time with her 2011 song Bloody Mary. Cries of joy rose from the tightly packed fans who sang and danced shoulder-to-shoulder on the vast stretch of sand. Concert organizers said 2.1 million people attended the show. Lady Gaga
SUPPORT: The Australian prime minister promised to back Kyiv against Russia’s invasion, saying: ‘That’s my government’s position. It was yesterday. It still is’ Left-leaning Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese yesterday basked in his landslide election win, promising a “disciplined, orderly” government to confront cost-of-living pain and tariff turmoil. People clapped as the 62-year-old and his fiancee, Jodie Haydon, who visited his old inner Sydney haunt, Cafe Italia, surrounded by a crowd of jostling photographers and journalists. Albanese’s Labor Party is on course to win at least 83 seats in the 150-member parliament, partial results showed. Opposition leader Peter Dutton’s conservative Liberal-National coalition had just 38 seats, and other parties 12. Another 17 seats were still in doubt. “We will be a disciplined, orderly
RSS