On Thursday, actor Jussie Smollett will learn whether a judge will sentence him to prison for lying to police about a racial and homophobic attack that he staged or will let him go free.
Smollett, who is anticipated to continue to deny his role in January 2019 staged attack, faces up to three years in prison for each of the five felony counts of disorderly conduct – the charge filed for lying to police – for which he was convicted. On a sixth count, he was acquitted.
However, because Smollett has no previous criminal history and the conviction is for a low-level nonviolent crime, experts do not believe he will be imprisoned. The actor might be sentenced to up to a year in county jail, or he could be placed on probation and compelled to conduct community service if Cook County Judge James Linn so chooses.
Before sentencing, Smollett’s lead attorney has stated that he will petition the judge to dismiss the charges. However, such motions are rarely granted by judges. This could be the concluding chapter in a criminal case that grabbed international news after Smollett, who is Black and homosexual, reported to police that two men wearing ski masks assaulted him and yelled racial and homophobic slurs at him on a dark Chicago street before fleeing.
Smollett was convicted in December after a trial that included the testimony of two brothers who testified that Smollett paid them to carry out the attack, gave them money for the ski masks and rope, and instructed them to shape the rope into a noose.
Prosecutors said he informed them what racial and homophobic obscenities to say, as well as that Smollett was in “MAGA Country,” a reference to Donald Trump’s presidential campaign slogan.
Smollett, who knew the men from his work on the Chicago-based television show “Empire,” testified that he didn’t recognize them and had no idea they were the men who attacked him. During the hearing, prosecutors and Smollett’s attorneys will present witnesses and Smollett will be able to make a statement.
He could repeat parts of what he told jurors during the trial about how he was just a victim of a brutal crime. As he informed jurors, Smollett might potentially tell the judge about his extended history of volunteering and donating to charity organizations.
And he could argue that the fact that the case has ruined his career is enough punishment to keep him out of jail.
