Last year actor Jussie Smollett was sentenced to 150 days in jail on disorderly conduct charges for staging a hate crime hoax in Chicago [click here if you missed that].
This week Jussie filed an appeal to have the conviction thrown out...
From CBS News
The legal saga continues for former Empire actor Jussie Smollett, who is trying to avoid jail time.
On Tuesday, an Illinois appeals court panel heard arguments from his attorneys, who say his convictions should be tossed out.
Smollett claimed he was the victim of a hate crime in Streeterville in 2019. He was charged with 16 felonies alleging he orchestrated a fake hate crime against himself. Those charges were dropped.
A new indictment and trial followed, and Smollett was convicted on five counts of disorderly conduct in 2021. Smollett filed an appeal in March 2022, challenging his conviction.
His attorneys have argued he is being punished for the same crime twice because he forfeited his $10,000 bond payment and agreed to perform 16 hours of community service when Cook County prosecutors dropped the original charges. A judge later ruled that the deal was invalid and appointed a special prosecutor who filed the new charges leading to Smollett's conviction.
Smollett's team has argued that the trial violated his Fifth Amendment protections against double jeopardy.
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