Jussie Smollett was sentenced to 30 months probation for lying to police about staging a hate crime attack against himself in Chicago, but will spend the first 150 days of the sentence in Cook County Jail.
After the sentencing was announced and Smollett learned he would be spending time in jail, he repeatedly yelled in court “I am not suicidal!”
“I am not suicidal. If anything happens to me when I go in there I did not do it to myself and you must all know that,” he said.
Cook County Judge James Linn excoriated Smollett prior to handing down his sentence for what he referred to as “misconduct and shenanigans.”
He referred to him as a “charlatan” who spent hours on the stand committing “pure perjury.”
“I’m going to tell you Mr. Smollett, I know that there is nothing that I will do here today that will come close to the damage you’ve already done to your own life,” Linn said.
In considering the sentence, Linn said Smollett’s “extreme” premeditation of the crime was an aggravating factor.
“You committed hour upon hour upon hour of perjury,” Linn said.
Smollett walked into the Leighton Criminal Courts building flanked by his family and attorney for his sentencing hearing at 1 p.m., where his defense team first sought to have the jury’s verdict overturned on legal grounds.
Jussie Smollett’s grandmother, testifying for the defense, asked Linn not to include prison time in his sentence for Smollett.
“I ask you, judge, not to send him to prison,” Molly Smollett, 92, told the court. She later added, “If you do, send me along with him, OK?”
Special prosecutor Dan Webb asked Linn to include “an appropriate amount of prison time” when sentencing the actor for his conviction. Webb said he would not ask for a specific amount of time, leaving that to Linn’s discretion.
He also asked that Smollett be ordered to pay $130,000 in restitution to the city of Chicago.
Smollett was offered the opportunity to speak, but declined, saying he agreed with his attorney’s advice to remain quiet.
After a long investigation and years in court, Smollett was convicted of five of six felony counts of disorderly conduct for lying to police. He faced a maximum sentence of three years in prison for all counts.
“These are very low-level crimes and it would be extraordinary in a normal case for someone with no meaningful criminal history to face jail time on these crimes, but this is not the normal case,” said ABC Legal Analyst Gil Soffer. “Given the notoriety, given what he put the city of Chicago through, I wouldn’t be shocked to see some very small amount of prison imposed.”
