The Illinois Supreme Court has overturned a conviction against actor Jussie Smollett, who prosecutors accused of staging a racist and homophobic attack against himself in 2019 in Chicago.
Smollett, who is black and gay, was convicted of five counts of disorderly conduct in 2021.
He had claimed two men targeted him in a hate-crime, yelling racial slurs and putting a noose around his neck while he was walking down the street near his apartment.
Two men testified that the Empire television show star paid them $3,500 (KSh. 456.1 K) to stage the attack.
Smollett was sentenced to 150 days in jail, but served only six days before he was freed pending appeal.
The state Supreme Court sided with Smollett’s attorneys, who argued in their appeal that Smollett should not have been charged by a special prosecutor after the Cook County State Attorney’s Office dropped charges in exchange for community service.
The decision sparked an uproar from many, including Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel said who said Smollett was “let off scot-free, with no sense of accountability for the moral and ethical wrong of his actions”.
A grand jury later re-established the charges after a special prosecutor took on the case.
“We are aware that this case has generated significant public interest and that many people were dissatisfied with the resolution of the original case and believed it to be unjust,” the state Supreme Court wrote in its opinion on Thursday.
“Nevertheless, what would be more unjust than the resolution of any one criminal case would be a holding from this court that the State was not bound to honor agreements upon which people have detrimentally relied.”
During Smollett’s trial, prosecutors alleged he staged the attack because he was unhappy with a television studio’s response to hate mail he received.
Smollett said the attack was “no hoax” and that he was the victim of a hate crime in Chicago.
But the two men he accused of perpetrating the crime – two brothers, one of whom Smollett said he met through the Empire show – said Smollett hired them and paid them with a cheque.