Jussie Smollett's disorderly conduct conviction upheld by Illinois appeals court

CHICAGO - An Illinois appeals court on Friday upheld Jussie Smollett's disorderly conduct conviction. The panel voted 2-1 to affirm the conviction.

Smollett was convicted in 2021 for staging a racist, homophobic attack on himself in 2019 and filing a false police report.

Smollett maintained he had no part in the planning or execution of an alleged attack on him on a cold night outside his Streeterville apartment. Investigators said he staged it with two men he knew from the "Empire" television show he was filming in Chicago.

Prosecutors said Smollett told the men what slurs to shout, and to yell that he was in "MAGA Country," a reference to Donald Trump’s presidential campaign slogan.

Smollett was convicted on five counts of disorderly conduct, a charge that can be filed in Illinois when a person lies to police. He now will have to finish a 150-day stint in jail that was part of his sentence. Smollett spent just six days in jail while his appeal was pending.

In an outburst after his sentence was announced, the actor repeatedly stated, "I did not do this." Saying he was not suicidal, he warned, "If anything happens to me when I go in there, I did not do it to myself."

Lawyers for Smollett, who is Black and gay, have publicly claimed that he was the target of a racist justice system and people playing politics.

"We are preparing to escalate this matter to the Supreme Court," Smollett spokeswoman Holly Baird said, referring to Illinois' highest court and also noting that the opinion at the appellate court wasn't unanimous.

Appellate Justice Freddrenna Lyle would have thrown out the convictions. She said it was "fundamentally unfair" to appoint a special prosecutor and charge Smollett when he had already performed community service as part of a 2019 deal with Cook County prosecutors to close the case.

"It was common sense that Smollett was bargaining for a complete resolution of the matter, not simply a temporary one," Lyle said.

Special prosecutor Dan Webb was appointed to look into why the case was dropped. A grand jury subsequently restored charges against Smollett in 2020, and Webb concluded there were "substantial abuses of discretion" in the state's attorney's office during the earlier round.

"We're at the end of the road," said Webb. "I have a team of lawyers that have worked really hard for many years to do what we were asked to do, and to help restore the public's confidence in the court system. I think we accomplished that."

Smollett was not immune to a fresh round of charges, appellate Justices David Navarro and Mary Ellen Coghlan said in the majority opinion.

"The record does not contain any evidence that (prosecutors) agreed Smollett would not be further prosecuted in exchange for forfeiting his bond and performing community service," they said.

The full statement issued by Smollett's team Friday afternoon can be read below:

"We wish to highlight that the decision was divided, with Justice Lyle offering a detailed analysis in favor of Smollett. We are preparing to escalate this matter to the Supreme Court, armed with a substantial body of evidence."

Read the court's full decision below:

The Associated Press contributed to this report.