Jussie Smollett headed back to jail after conviction upheld by appeals court in hate crime hoax

By 

Associated Press

Published Dec. 1, 2023, 1:06 p.m. ET

0 seconds of 30 secondsVolume 0%

MORE ON:JUSSIE SMOLLETT

• 20-year-old arrested for allegedly lying about being victim of anti-Palestinian hate crime
• Barry Manilow finally getting his show on Broadway after 2 decades
• Jussie Smollett still hasn’t apologized for his hate-crime hoax — why isn’t he in jail?
• Bombshell report details Don Lemon’s alleged history of racist, sexist, ‘diva-like behavior’

An appeals court on Friday upheld the disorderly conduct convictions of actor Jussie Smollett, who was accused of staging a racist, homophobic attack against himself in 2019 and then lying about it to Chicago police.

Smollett, who appeared in the TV show “Empire,” challenged the role of a special prosecutor, jury selection, evidence and many other aspects of the case. But all were turned aside in a 2-1 opinion from the Illinois Appellate Court.

Smollett had reported to police that he was the victim of a racist and homophobic attack by two men wearing ski masks. The manhunt for the attackers soon turned into an investigation of Smollett himself, leading to his arrest on charges he had orchestrated the attack.

Authorities said he paid two men whom he knew from work on “Empire.”

A jury convicted Smollett in 2021 on five felony counts of disorderly conduct, a charge that can be filed in Illin