ILOSM fam,’ if you’ve been keeping up with the Jussie Smollett racial-homophobic hoax attack case as of late, then you know Jussie and his family have been goin’ off about his prison sentence. The 5-month prison sentence he began serving Thursday, March 10, 2022, pissed off Jussie to no end, and had his family and legal team claiming that it was an ‘injustice.’
Welp…fast forward to now, and the ex-“Empire” star has surprisingly walked out of jail, in less than a week. However, there are some conditions to this situation, and his get-out-out-jail card isn’t permanent…at least not at the moment.
Jussie’s legal team is pushing to appeal his 5-month sentence, and while doing so, the appeals court granted their request of allowing Jussie to be released during the appeals process. On Wednesday evening, Jussie was able to walk out of Cook County jail on his own recognizance…however, he’ll be coughing up an extra $150,000 if he skips any future hearings regarding his case.
Jussie happily strolled out of Cook County jail surrounded by law enforcement officers. As a crowd of reporters stood by hoping to get a word or two out of Jussie, he walked passed them in silence, got into a vehicle and was driven off to an undisclosed location. There were seemingly a few fans nearby cheering him on, to which he gestured in gratitude for their support.
Jussie’s legal team had some things to say to the awaiting media though. One of Jussie’s attorneys claimed the judge handed down an unconstitutional sentence…after Jussie was found guilty of creating an attack hoax, costing the city of Chicago approximately $150,000 during the investigation, and lying to law enforcement. According to the attorney, it’s a “shame” that Jussie was “put in a cage for a class 4 felony.”
Jussie’s legal team also claims that Jussie’s emotional state, while imprisoned for the past few days, was grim and seemed like he’d given up hope in the constitution.
Tina Glandian — another of Jussie’s attorneys — said “We are gratified that Jussie will be back with his family and loved ones and look forward to a dispassionate review and reversal of the serial injustices visited upon him.”
City Officials Speak Out Against Jussie’s Release
According to TMZ, the state of Illinois is a tad pissed over the release of Jussie, stating “Rather than attempt to meet his burden of showing good cause for his immediate release, Mr. Smollett makes only cursory, woefully undeveloped arguments. Each fails to demonstrate good cause to stay his jail sentence.”
Jussie’s Family Maintained His Innocence And Pushed For His Release
A few days prior to Jussie’s release, his brother, Joqui Smollett, took to social media to protest against Jussie having been placed in the psyche ward of the hospital. He pleaded with fans to speak out against the ‘injustice against Jussie’ as well.
However, the Cook County jail released a response stating that Jussie was simply housed in the psyche ward because that is where their high-profiled inmates are placed for their own protection. The jail’s rep’ also said Jussie was never confined to a bed like they would treat an average psyche inmate.
Additionally, in their push to get Jussie released…both Jussie’s fam’ and legal team ‘cited racist and homophobic threats they’d received, and also said Jussie was immunocompromised … and highly susceptible to contracting COVID-19 while in jail,’ reports TMZ.
Recap
In case you haven’t been keeping up with the Jussie Smollet news…Jussie was convicted of faking a racial-homophobic attack, by claiming two white dudes attacked him in the middle of the night as he walked down a Chicago street. However, law enforcement officials proved – via the two Osundairo brothers, who are Nigerian; and other evidence – that Jussie paid the brothers to stage the attack. This came after millions of people initially rallied behind Jussie through social media, only to later learn that the attack was a ‘hoax.’
Jussie has repeatedly claimed he’s innocent, just as he did as he was being hauled off to jail, following his jail sentencing on March 10th.
We’ll keep y’all posted on this as the story develops.
