nypost.com
03.03.2023 / 01:07
Jussie Smollett appeals conviction for hate crime hoax, argues bias
appealing his conviction for staging a racist and homophobic attack on himself and lying to Chicago police about it — nearly a year after he was sentenced to five months in jail.The “Empire” alum, 40, is seeking a new trial, as he claims “prosecutorial misconduct” in this case was “clear and egregious,” according to the 102-page document filed Wednesday with the Illinois Appellate Court and obtained by The Post.A jury convicted Smollett in December 2021 of five counts of disorderly conduct. He had claimed that on a frigid early morning in January 2019, two men approached him in the dark, yelled slurs at him, punched him, poured a chemical substance on him and hung a noose around his neck.Chicago police accused Smollett of recruiting brothers Abimbola and Olabinjo Osundairo to carry out the attack to boost his burgeoning Hollywood career.Abimbola, an amateur boxer and occasional bit-part actor, testified in court that Smollett, who is black and gay, told him the specific words he wanted the brothers to used were “Empire’, f—-t, n—-r, MAGA.”On March 10, 2022, Smollett was sentenced to 150 days in jail as he continued to proclaim his innocence.