American actor Jussie Smollett has been granted freedom following his #FreeJussie campaign on social media.
He has now been released on bond from jail in Chicago by an Illinois appeals court pending an appeal against his conviction for falsely claiming he was the victim of a hate crime pending his appeal after a judge had sentenced him to five months in jail for staging a racist and anti-gay attack against himself.
The appeals court ordered that Smollett be released after posting a personal recognizance bond of $150,000.
“Obviously the Smollett family are very, very happy with today’s developments,” Nenye Uche, one of Smollett’s attorneys, told reporters outside the jail after his release. “There is no room for politics in our court system and our appellate court in this great state do not play politics.”
During his sentencing hearing last week, Smollett declined to make a statement. The actor stood up and again professed his innocence and repeatedly said, “I am not suicidal.”
“I am innocent and I am not suicidal,” Smollett said. “If anything happens to me when I go in there, I did not do it to myself and you must all know that.”
Smollett’s attorneys have maintained that the actor never should have been indicted a second time.
“Is it right for a person to be punished twice,” Uche said, as he pressed journalists to report on the constitutionality of that. “Do your job. Get out there. Ask the right questions.”
Uche said Smollett appeared to be shocked when he learned that he was being released on Wednesday, saying that he put his hands on the glass that separated them as his eyes watered.
“I think he had nearly given up,” Uche said.
He said Smollett had not eaten any food during his six days in jail but couldn’t say why or if it was in protest of his sentence.
“If I was in jail for something I didn’t do … I doubt [I’d] be eating,” Uche said.
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