Former Actor Jussie Smollett Sentenced for Hate Crime Hoax

Yesterday Jussie Smollett received his prison sentence. The former actor will spend 30 months on felony probation with 150 days in jail and pay a restitution of more than $120,000 and a $25,000 fine for making false reports to police that he was the victim of a hate crime in January 2019. After the judge handed him his sentence, Smollett lowered his mask and said that he was innocent saying quote “Your honor, I respect you and I respect the jury, but I did not do this, and I am not suicidal. And if anything happens to me when I go in there, I did not do it to myself. And you must all know that”. Cook County Judge James Linn spoke for over 30 minutes before the sentencing telling Smollett that he wrote the script, picked the actors for the hoax and that his premeditation for the act was an ‘aggressive factor’ in the case.