Jussie Smollett's Conviction Overturned On Technicality

Actor Jussie Smollett has had his conviction on a handful of disorderly conduct charges overturned by the Illinois Supreme Court.

On Thursday, according to the Associated Press, the Land of Lincoln's highest court decided that the case against Smollett should have ended when Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx’s office decided to stop 16 counts of disorderly conduct against the actor who claimed that he had been attacked by two dudes who shouted slurs at him and put a noose around his neck while he left a Subway sandwich shop in the middle of the night in temperatures usually only found around the North and South Pole.

While the story was pretty suspicious from the start, it kicked off a search for the culprits until evidence pointed to Smollet having orchestrated the entire thing.

So, after Foxx dropped the charges there was a lot of public outcry, including from then-Chicago Mayor Rahm Emmanuel. This led to the appointment of a special prosecutor who charged Smollett again, and that's what led to his 2021 conviction on five counts of disorderly conduct.

But therein lies the problem… at least in the eyes of the Illinois Supreme Court.

They decided that when the initial charges were dropped, that should have been the end of the case against the actor.

The Illinois Supreme Court has decided to overturn the conviction of actor Jussie Smollett. (Photo by Steven Ferdman/Getty Images)

While Smollett's team applauded the court for "restoring order to Illinois’ criminal law jurisprudence," special prosecutor Dan Webb noted that the decision had nothing to do with Smollett being innocent.

"The Illinois Supreme Court did not find any error with the overwhelming evidence presented at trial that Mr. Smollett orchestrated a fake hate crime and reported it to the Chicago Police Department as a real hate crime, or the jury’s unanimous verdict that Mr. Smollett was guilty of five counts of felony disorderly conduct," Webb said.

Smollett was originally sentenced to 150 days in prison and served six but was released pending appeal.