Jussie Smollett released from jail amid appeal on charges he faked hate crime - AMEBO NEWSPAPERS NG.

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Jussie Smollett released from jail amid appeal on charges he faked hate crime

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Jussie Smollett has been released from jail just hours after an Illinois state appellate court ruled he could go free while his lawyers appeal his conviction for staging a hate crime.

Smollett, 39, left jail in Chicago on Wednesday March 16, flanked by five large men and said nothing as he was ushered into a light-colored SUV that drove away from the Cook County Detention Center around 8 p.m. local time.

Smollett had been behind bars for six days – during which time lawyers said he did not eat and consumed only ice water – after being sentenced to five months in jail for being found guilty on five counts of felony disorderly conduct for lying to police.

Defense lawyers argued that Smollett was unconstitutionally charged twice for the same crime because charges against him were dropped in 2019 in connection with his alleged false report that bigoted fans of President Trump attacked him with a noose and bleach in 2018.


He was brought up on new charges a year later under Illinois’ disorderly conduct statute after a special prosecutor looked into the case amid national outrage. A jury then found that the former “Empire” actor, who is black and gay, had paid two men to beat him up in the hopes of raising his public profile.
“When this case was initially reindicted, when this case was prosecuted, when this case was sentenced, I wondered to myself if Chicago had succeeded from the union because you can not punish someone twice,” lead defense lawyer Nenye Uche told reporters outside the jail.
Smollett’s lawyers filed an emergency motion to postpone his sentence on Monday and an appellate judge found that because Smollett had been convicted of “non-violent” offenses, the court would allow him to be released from a Chicago jail on a $150,000 individual bond during the appeal, according to the court order.

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