Illinois Supreme Court agrees to hear Jussie Smollett case
CHICAGO (CBS) -- The Illinois Supreme Court on Wednesday agreed to hear former "Empire" actor Jussie Smollett's appeal of his convictions for orchestrating a hate crime hoax.
Smollett took his case to the state's highest court last month, asking justices to overturn his convictions on five counts of disorderly conduct after an Illinois Appellate Court panel last year upheld his guilty verdict.
On Wednesday, the Illinois Supreme Court allowed Smollett's appeal to go forward. Arguments have not yet been set.
Smollett, who is Black and gay, has claimed he was the victim of a racist and homophobic attack near his Streeterville apartment on one of the coldest nights of the year in January 2019 after he'd walked several blocks for a Subway sandwich.
After police investigated his claims, detectives later focused on Smollett himself, and he was charged with staging a fate hate crime against himself with brothers Abel and Ola Osundairo, who later testified he paid them to stage the attack.
Cook County prosecutors dropped those charges weeks later, but a judge later ruled that Cook County Kim Foxx's office mishandled the case and appointed a special prosecutor to review it.
That special prosecutor later brought a new grand jury indictment against Smollett, and he was convicted of five counts of disorderly conduct and sentenced to 150 days in jail.
Smollett spent six days in jail before he was released while he appealed the verdict.
In December, in a 2-1 decision, an Illinois Appellate Court panel rejected Smollett's arguments that his trial violated his Fifth Amendment protections against double jeopardy.
The appeals court decision found that Smollett was not denied due process, ruling that there was no evidence prosecutors had agreed not to prosecute Smollett further when the initial charges against him were dropped in exchange for him forfeiting his $10,000 bond and performing 16 hours of community service.
But Appellate Justice Freddrenna Lyle dissented in that ruling, arguing it was "fundamentally unfair" to appoint a special prosecutor to charge Smollett a second time after he'd entered an agreement he believed would end the case.
Should Smollett's appeal to the Illinois Supreme Court fail, he could take his case to the U.S. Supreme Court since he is arguing his conviction violates his Fifth Amendment protections against double jeopardy.
CBS 2 Legal Analyst Irv Miller has said it's likely Smollett will exhaust every legal option, given how aggressive his attorneys have been in fighting his conviction.
