The Illinois Supreme Court has overturned former “Empire” actor Jussie Smollett’s felony conviction for orchestrating a fake hate crime, finding that his prosecution violated due process because it ran afoul of a nonprosecution deal he entered into in an earlier, related case.
In a Nov. 21 opinion, the high court decided to reverse Smollett’s 2021 conviction on felony disorderly conduct charges for falsely reporting a hate crime because, in 2019, the Cook County state’s attorney’s office dismissed similar charges against him via a legal doctrine known as noelle prosequi. This action ended his prosecution without a determination of guilt of innocence, and involved a nonprosecution agreement in which the charges were dropped in exchange for Smollett forfeiting his $10,000 bond and completing community service.
