Actor Jussie Smollett, convicted of staging a hate crime against himself in an effort to frame Trump supporters, will be returning to jail after a court of appeals dismissed his challenge to the conviction.
In a 2-1 ruling, an Illinois Appellate Court upheld the Empire actor’s conviction, which will force him to return to the Cook County Jail where he’ll continue serving the rest of his 150-day sentence.
Back in March 2022, Smollett was sentenced to 150 days in jail for filing multiple false police reports alleging he was the victim of a brutal homophobic hate crime.
Smollett was found guilty on 5 of 6 felony disorderly conduct counts, each carrying a maximum sentence of three years in prison.
The charges stemmed from a January 2019 incident in Chicago, Illinois, in which Smollett, 41, hired friends to help him stage a fake hate crime attack in which he was supposed to be assaulted by two Trump supporters wearing MAGA hats who yelled racist and homophobic slurs at him, before declaring, “MAGA Country!” pouring bleach on him, and putting a noose around his neck.
At the time, Cook County Circuit Court Judge James Linn laid into Smollett chastising him for perpetrating and perpetuating the hoax.
“You’re just a charlatan pretending to be a victim of a hate crime,” the judge told Smollett, adding, “Your very name has become an adverb for ‘lying.’”
“Your performance on the witness stand can only be described as pure perjury,” the judge also told him. “You are now a permanently convicted felon.”
“There is nothing that I can do here today that will come close to the damage you’ve already done to your own life,” Linn added. “You turned your life upside down by your misconduct and shenanigans.”
The former Empire cast member bizarrely responded to the judge’s sentence by saying, “I am not suicidal!” before being hauled off to jail.
Wild moment: After getting sentenced to 150 days in jail, Jussie Smollett maintains his innocence and repeats how he is not suicidal.
“I am not suicidal. I am innocent and I am not suicidal … if anything happens to me when I go in there, I did not do it to myself.” pic.twitter.com/AnDsLcINKL
— The Recount (@therecount) March 11, 2022
Following the conviction, the hate hoaxer only served six days in prison before he was released after an appeals court’s decision for him to be free while he awaited the outcome of his appeal.
Jussie Smollett has been released from jail after an appeals court ruled that he should be free while he appeals his conviction for lying to police about what he claimed was a racist and homophobic attack. https://t.co/9D22OduBIb
— The Associated Press (@AP) March 17, 2022