CHICAGO — Nearly a year after being sentenced to five months in jail, only to be released on bond days later, former actor Jussie Smollett has filed his long-awaited appeal claiming his indictment by a special prosecutor was invalid due to double-jeopardy concerns and that the trial judge was biased against him.
The 102-page brief filed Wednesday with the Illinois Appellate Court tread mostly familiar ground in the well-worn case against Smollett, the onetime “Empire” star who was convicted by a jury in December 2021 of paying two acquaintances to fake a racist and homophobic attack on him to get exposure and boost his career.
Cook County Judge James Linn sentenced Smollett in March 2022 to 150 days in jail in a hearing during which Smollett once again proclaimed his innocence, dramatically telling the judge, “I am not suicidal. ... If anything happens to me in there, I did not do it to myself!” before being led away with his fist in the air.
