The Illinois Supreme Court has thrown out the conviction of former Empire actor Jussie Smollett for lying about a 2019 hate crime.

Smollett was found guilty in 2021 of faking a racist and homophobic attack and lying to police. His lawyers said this violated his Fifth Amendment rights because Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx had already agreed in 2019 to drop the charges if Smollett paid $10,000 and performed community service. A special prosecutor later charged him again, leading to his trial and conviction.

In its ruling, filed Thursday, the court said they resolve a “question about the state’s responsibility to fulfill the agreements it makes with suspects.”

The court stated that it did not find that the state could bring a second prosecution against Smollett after the initial charge was dismissed as part of an agreement and the actor complied with the terms of the agreement, noting that Illinois case law establishes that is ‘fundamentally unfair’. to enable the prosecutor to renege on a deal with a suspect when the suspect has relied on the deal to his detriment.

“We are aware that this case has generated significant public interest and that many people were dissatisfied with the resolution of the original case and believed it was unfair. “Nevertheless, what would be more unjust than the resolution of a single criminal case would be a It was held by this court that the state was not obliged to honor agreements on which people have harmfully relied,” the court said.

Among the cases cited in the court’s ruling is that of Bill Cosby, whose 2021 sexual assault conviction was overturned by Pennsylvania’s highest court.

Cosby was sentenced in 2018 to three to 10 years in prison for allegedly drugging and sexually assaulting former Temple University employee Andrea Constand in 2004. After hearing Cosby’s appeal, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court concluded that his prosecution should never have occurred because a deal the comedian made with former Montgomery County Prosecutor Bruce Castor, who agreed not to criminally prosecute Cosby if he testified in a civil case Constand had against him tightened.

While citing the Cosby case, the Illinois Supreme Court said that “abandoning a fully executed agreement” after Smollett forfeited a $10,000 bond would be “arbitrary, unreasonable, fundamentally unfair and a violation of rights of a fair trial of the accused.’

The Illinois Supreme Court’s decision overturns previous rulings by Cook County and appellate courts. The court has now sent the case back to the lower court to officially dismiss the charges.

A jury convicted him in December 2021 on five of six misdemeanor counts of disorderly conduct stemming from filing a false police report and lying to police, who spent more than $130,000 investigating his allegations.

He was sentenced to 150 days in jail, ordered to pay $120,000 in restitution to the city of Chicago, a $25,000 fine and 30 months’ probation.

The case began after the openly gay actor told police in early January 2019 that he had been attacked by two men while walking on the street near his Chicago apartment. unknown chemical” on him and wrapped a rope around his neck.

Chicago police said Smollett’s story of being the victim of an attack began to unravel when investigators tracked down two men, brothers Abimbola and Olabinjo Osundairo, who they said were seen in surveillance video near where Smollett claimed he had been attacked and around the same time it happened. supposedly took place. The Osundairo brothers told police that the actor paid them $3,500 to help him orchestrate and stage the crime.

In March 2019, a grand jury indicted Smollett on 16 felony counts of disorderly conduct for filing a false police report. In a surprise move, Foxx’s office dropped the charges later that month, despite the fact that Smollet had fabricated the street attack on himself in an attempt to get a raise for his role in “Empire.” As part of an agreement with prosecutors, Smollett forfeited 10% of a $100,000 bond and completed preventive community service before the charges were dropped.

The case was reopened in June 2019, when a Cook County judge appointed a special prosecutor to investigate the decision to dismiss all charges against Smollett. The actor was then charged again in February 2020 with six misdemeanor counts of disorderly conduct for filing a false police report.