Lying to Yourself Again! Suicidal Imbecile
- A judge sentenced the actor Jussie Smollett to 30 months of probation, including 150 days of jail time, on Thursday.
- The erstwhile "Empire" role player was convicted of lying to police force in 2019 and posing every bit the victim of a racist and homophobic assault.
- Smollett shouted in the court that he was "innocent" and "not suicidal."
Jussie Smollett was sentenced on Thursday to 30 months of probation, including 150 days of jail time, for staging a hate crime against himself and lying to constabulary near it. In response, the disgraced role player raised his fist in the air and shouted repeatedly in the courtroom that he was "innocent" and that he was "non suicidal."
"I am not suicidal! I am innocent. And I am not suicidal," he said in courtroom. "If I did this, and so it means that I stuck my fist in the fears of black Americans who accept been in this country for over 400 years, and the fears of the LGBT community."
Smollett, 39, was convicted in Dec 2021 of v felony counts of disorderly comport. He had been charged with filing simulated police reports stating he had been the victim of a racist and homophobic attack. Cook Canton Judge James Linn also sentenced Smollett to pay $120,106 restitution to the city of Chicago to cover the price of the constabulary investigation, besides equally a $25,000 fine.
The former "Empire" actor, who is Black and openly gay, told police that two men attacked him in the early morning hours of January 29, 2019, shouting, "This is MAGA state!" Smollett also said the men beat him, poured bleach on him, and wrapped a rope around his neck similar a noose.
But prosecutors alleged at trial that Smollett had actually paid ii brothers, Abimbola and Olabinjo Osundairo, to pretend to assail him that dark. The Osundairo brothers took the stand during the trial, testifying that Smollett had paid them $3,500 for the job and provided specific instructions on how to fake the assault.
In a blistering spoken communication on Thursday, Cook County Judge Linn marveled at Smollett's "hypocrisy," called him a "adventurer," and that said despite Smollett's social-justice advocacy and philanthropy, he had washed "impairment to existent victims of hate crimes."
Linn openly speculated about Smollett's motives behind the hoax, saying Smollett knew that racial tension was "a sore spot for everyone in this country" and request why he would "beguile something similar social justice issues, which you lot care so much about?"
"I don't think money motivated you at all. The simply affair that I can observe is that y'all really craved the attention," Linn said. "You took some scabs off some healing wounds for one reason: you wanted to make yourself more famous. And for a while, information technology worked. You were actually throwing a national pity party for yourself."
Linn also told Smollett he had a side that was "profoundly arrogant and selfish and narcissistic."
Smollett pleaded non guilty to all of the charges and even testified in his own defense force during his trial. He told the jury "there was no hoax," insisted he was genuinely attacked, and said he did pay the Osundairo brothers $3,500 — but simply for a nutrition and conditioning plan.
Linn said Smollett's "performance on the witness stand up could only exist described as pure perjury. You committed 60 minutes upon hr upon hour of pure perjury."
Smollett'due south supporters pleaded for the judge to keep him out of jail
Smollett's defense attorney filed a motion last month request Judge Linn to either toss the conviction or grant Smollett a new trial. On Thursday, Linn denied that motion, arguing that zippo virtually Smollett's prosecution had deprived him of due process.
"I practise believe at the end of the day that Mr. Smollett had a fair trial," Linn said. "In that location was nothing unconstitutional about these proceedings."
Smollett could take faced up to iii years in prison, but legal experts had long predicted that Smollett was more likely to be sentenced to probation or community service due to the non-violent nature of the crimes.
Ahead of Th'southward sentencing hearing, a number of Smollett'south supporters — including those in the racial justice community and the amusement industry — submitted letters to Linn pleading for leniency for Smollett.
The actors Samuel L. Jackson and LaTanya Richardson Jackson, Rev. Jesse Jackson, and the NAACP all submitted letters asking the estimate to consider Smollett'due south history of charitable giving and volunteer piece of work and suggesting that Smollett has already been punished enough via the impairment to his reputation and acting career.
The defense also chosen several witnesses to the stand up on Thursday to bear witness in back up of Smollett, including the music manager of "Empire," Smollett's older brother, and Smollett's 92-yr-old grandmother. Each of them described Smollett as a loving and generous social-justice advocate and noted that the crimes Smollett was convicted of were non-violent.
Smollett could be seen wiping tears from his optics equally his brother and grandmother spoke.
"The Jussie I know and love does not match upward with the media's portrayal of him," his grandmother, Molly Smollett, told the court. "Jussie is loved and respected by all that know him. I inquire y'all, approximate, non to send him to prison. If you do, send me along with him."
Special prosecutor Sean Wieber had asked Th that Linn impose some "period of incarceration," and slammed Smollett in a statement, accusing him of lying to the jury while nether adjuration, lying to the investigating police officers, and undermining truthful victims of detest crimes. Wieber likewise condemned Smollett'southward lack of apology or acknowledgment of whatsoever wrongdoing, noting that "non a unmarried act of contrition has happened in this example."
"He lied to them over and over and over once more," Wieber said. "He denigrated, degraded truthful detest crimes and he marginalized the people who are true victims of detest crimes. That is what he did. And he did that knowingly."
Source: https://www.insider.com/jussie-smollett-sentenced-to-150-days-jail-hate-crime-hoax-2022-3
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