Written by by WARNER TODD HUSTON at breitbart.com
Former Empire star Jussie Smollett is taking the appeal of his criminal conviction all the way to the Illinois Supreme Court.
The state’s high court has agreed to hear Smollett’s appeal of his conviction for staging a hate crime in 2019 to garner media attention, according to the Chicago Tribune.
A lower appellate court had already upheld his convictions for his report of a hate crime.
Smollett asked the high court to review the case and argued the lower court’s decision “threatens to upend all informal and formal deferred prosecution agreements.”
But the state supreme court disagreed. In a two-to-one decision, the appeals court rejected Smollett’s arguments his conviction was illegitimate.
The only dissenter was Justice Freddrenna Lyle, who claimed that “Smollett gave up something of value, community service and bond forfeiture, in exchange for a nolle of the whole indictment.”
Smollett was fined $130,160, and sentenced to 150 days in jail after his conviction, but only served six days before being let out of jail as his appeal went through the courts.
The actor initially had all his charges dropped by George Soros-funded Cook County prosecutor Kim Foxx. But a special prosecutor was quickly called to investigate the case.
Soon enough, he was convicted of filing false police reports and falsely reporting that he was a victim of a hate crime.
The high court’s majority also pointed out that Smollett has already been the recipient of the court’s leniency.
For the majority, Justice David Navarro and Justice Mary Ellen Coghlan said that Smollett “challenges virtually every aspect of the second prosecution that resulted in his convictions and sentence.”