BREAKING: Jussie Smollett found GUILTY of staging hate crime

A jury has found former Empire actor Jussie Smollett guilty of staging his own hate crime and making a false police report.

The verdict was announced on Thursday, 9 December 2021, after more than nine hours of deliberation at a court in Chicago, the United States (US). The openly gay and black actor and singer was charged with six counts of disorderly conduct for making false reports to investigators in January 2019. Smollet claimed to have been the victim of a racist and homophobic attack.

BACKGROUND: Smollett had told Chicago police that he was accosted by two masked men in January 2019, who assaulted him and spouted racial and homophobic slurs at him. He said the men, who were wearing MAGA hats (Make America Great Again) also poured bleach all over him and put a noose around his neck. His story would soon crumble when police raided the home of two brothers who had worked with Smollett as extras on his television show’s set. Police recovered records indicating the brothers had been paid $3 500 (more than R55 000) by Smollett to beat him up.

JUSSIE SMOLLETT VERDICT WELCOMED

Chicago prosecutor Dan Webb said at a news conference that he was proud of the jury for finding Jussie Smollett guilty.

“Mr. Smollett would not have lost this case as he did today unless the jury found that he lied to them. The fact that he came up with a completely ridiculous story to explain his misconduct did not apparently have an impact on the jury’s verdict,” Webb said.

Smollett now faces up to 20 years behind bars. His lawyer, Nenye Uche said that the team disagree with the jury’s verdict and plan on challenging it.

“Unfortunately we were facing an uphill battle where Jussie was already tried and convicted in the media and then we had to somehow get the jury to forget or unsee all the news stories that they had been hearing that were negative for the last three years,” Uche told reporters after the verdict.