Court has resumed in Jussie Smollett's sentencing hearing. Smollett was convicted in December of five counts of criminal disorderly conduct, for supposedly staging a bogus hate crime against himself in January 2019. @CourthouseNews
https://twitter.com/djbyrnes1/status/1502029661911539715
Prosecution now presenting a victim impact statement on behalf of the City of Chicago and Chicago Police Department: "This has cost the city well over $100,000 dollars... during this period [of investigation] police and detectives put in over 1,000 hours [of labor]."
V.I.S., cont.: It claims that Smollett falsely reporting hate crimes will have "a tremendous chilling effect" on real hate crime victims coming forward; also asks for the city and CPD to be reimbursed for the costs of the $130k+ investigation into Smollett's claims.
Defense has called Rich Daniels, Smollett's friend and the former Music Director for the Empire TV show, to testify about Smollett's character. Daniels said Smollett donated a great deal of time to charitable non-profits, as well as a public school on Chicago's South Side.
"He's a very caring and loving young man," Daniels said. "He covered all the bases of time, treasure and talent" in giving back to the community, he added.
Defense is asking if Daniels would be willing to supervise Smollett if he received probation instead of prison time, to which Daniels answers, "absolutely. Be glad to."
Daniels is dismissed.
Defense now bringing another character witness to the stand: Sharon Gelman, former Exec. Director for the activist organization "Artists for a New South Africa." She calls Smollett "like family."
"Anything that needed doing, Jussie was willing to do it," Gelman said, regarding Smollett's work with her organization.
Gelman is dismissed. Defense calls Smollett's older brother, Joel Smollett Jr., to read a statement.
Joel asks Linn for leniency is sentencing his brother, calling him a "beacon of hope" for his community and pointing out the ambient issues of racism and inequality that surround the case.
"He is not a threat to the people of Illinois... the crime he is accused of is not even considered a felony in most states," Joel says, arguing that another young Black man shouldn't be fed to the US' racist carceral system.
"There's been a lot of talk about restoring public trust. In my opinion, you don't restore public trust... with a stiff jail sentence."
Joel also says that for the low-income, Black and Latino neighborhoods which surround the courthouse, giving Smollett jail time won't restore public trust in the legal system.
Joel concludes his statement; Jussie Smollett's grandmother Molly Smollett takes the stand to give her own. She says her grandson is a kind, generous young man, a "justice warrior," who has been wrongly slandered by the media.
"I ask you not to send him to prison, if you do, send me along with him," Molly says, concluding her statement.
Defense is now reading letters sent in by Smollett's supporters, as well as by groups like Black Lives Matter that oppose incarceration on principal.
The last letter in Smollett's defense comes from Derrick Johnson, president and CEO of the NAACP. "This case involves no drugs, no sex, no property damage... at its heart, this case involves a non-violent low-level offense."
Johnson's letter praises Smollett's past as an NAACP volunteer, an activist and a fundraiser for charitable programs, and denies the idea that he poses any kind of threat to anyone that would merit prison time.
Letters have wrapped up and the court is taking a five minute recess.
Court is back in session, and prosecution is making its own case for circumstances that should affect Smollett's sentence.
Prosecutor Dan Webb accuses Smollett of perjury, claiming he lied to jurors on the stand when giving testimony in his defense.
Webb also attacks Smollett again for never admitting any sort of culpability following the guilty verdict being handed down. "Not a single act of contrition," he said.
"He denigrated true hate crimes and marginalized the people who are true victims of hate crimes," Webb continues.
Webb further attacks the idea that Smollett's actions were a minor matter. "What Mr. Smollett did... discouraged [hate crime victims] from coming forward... to benefit himself."
Webb also accuses Smollett of refusing to cooperate with the initial investigation into the alleged hate crime, citing Smollett's reluctance to provide a DNA swab or turn over his phone and medical records to police in 2019.
Webb suggests to Linn that Smollett should receive prison time for one of the five felony disorderly conduct counts on which he was found guilty, and probation with 120 hours of community service for the other counts.
Webb wraps up with no questions from Linn. Smollett's lead defense attorney Nenye Uche is now making his own case for leniency, arguing that the damage to Smollett's career and reputation is an "eternal enough punishment."
Uche quotes Linn himself as saying that he wants to treat this case no different from any other Class 4 felony case - i.e., as a non-violent, low-level offense.
Uche also argues that Smollett shouldn't be held responsible for the $130K fine the prosecution wants him to pay - cites that Smollett already paid a forfeiture in the initial 2019 indictment. "Mr. Smollett was fined $10,000 dollars - you can't punish a person twice."
"It's overkill... that's not justice, that's retribution," Uche said of the prosecution's urging that Smollett receive jail time.
"He has no county conviction in his record," Uche points out, along with re-iterating that Smollett wasn't on trial for any violent crime.
Uche now chides Webb, who is white, directly for his statements on racism and the hypothetical victims of hate crimes. "That's offensive, [Smollet]'s Black. You can't educated him on race issues."
Uche lists prior Class 4 felony cases that Linn has presided over, in which Linn gave probation rather than prison time to the convicted person. "Why are we jumping up and down acting like this is a murder case? It's not... What does incarceration accomplish?"
"Sending Mr. Smollett to prison is almost like a death sentence," Uche argues, citing Illinois' high levels of Covid-19 infection among its prison population.
Uche asks Linn for probation without a fine, and wraps up his arguments.
Arguments and comments from lawyers and advocates have finished. Presiding Cook County judge James Linn has called for a five minute recess before delivering the final sentence in the criminal disorderly conduct case of #JussieSmollett. @CourthouseNews
Court is back in session, and Linn is explaining how this 3-year-old case arrived at this final point. He's praising the prosecutors of Winston & Strawn in particular for taking the case pro bono. He's not insulting the defense but he doesn't have any praise for them either.
Linn is also criticizing mandatory minimum sentencing, but says he is "unfettered" by those and is "mindful of the acute public interest in this case."
Linn denies being affected by the public or politics in his sentence. "The sentence that's going to be rendered today is for Mr. Smollett."
Linn says there's nothing he could do to Smollett that Smollett hasn't done to himself. "You've turned your life upside down with your shenanigans," Linn says.
Linn opines from the bench that Smollett carried out the alleged bogus hate crime not for money but out of a craving for attention. He says Smollett has some "wonderful" qualities but also that, "You have another side of you that is phenomenally arrogant and selfish."
Linn continues to opine that Smollett did "real damage" to victims of hate crimes, and has made them more difficult to investigate.
Linn continues to chide Smollett, accusing him of "pre-meditating this case to a degree that is amazing."
"You put the noose around your own neck. I repeat. You put. the noose. around. your own neck," Linn accuses Smollett of doing with one of his alleged attacker's racist props, punctuating the sentence for emphasis.
A quick aside: I've seen Linn lecture people before - I think he likes to think of himself as a school principal for the public sometimes - but I've never seen him this animated. Not sure if it bodes well for Smollett.
Back to reporting - Linn accuses Smollett of creating a "heater" - a case that makes police drop everything else to investigate.
"You're not a victim of a hate crime. You're a charlatan... and that's sad," Linn says.
Linn is also now accusing Smollett of "hours upon hours of pure perjury."
Full story coming later tonight.
Another aside: I'm not sure what to make of the fact that what led to this case being renewed after Kim Foxx dropped it in 2019, was an elderly white woman telling the Cook County court she was upset that a gay Black man hadn't been investigated thoroughly enough.
Full story here:
https://twitter.com/CourthouseNews/status/1502120110684790791
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