By Ryan Steal
The Jussie Smollett drama came to a startling finale Thursday when a Chicago judge sentenced him to five months in prison for concocting a “disgraceful” hate crime hoax, leading the actor to yell out in protest, “I’m innocent!”
“I could’ve said I was guilty a long time ago!” Smollett screamed as he was escorted away in handcuffs and taken into detention.
“I did not do this, and I am not suicidal and if anything happens to me when I go there, I did not do it to myself and you must all know that,” he added.
Judge James Linn asked Smollett if he’d like to say anything before handing down his punishment, but he declined, stating that his attorney, Nenye Uche, advised against it because of their plans to appeal the verdict.
However, after Linn delivered a lengthy monologue in which he chastised Smollett for pretending to be a hate crime victim, Smollett began shouting at the court when he discovered he’d be going to jail, as if there was some sort of plot against him.
“I am not suicidal. I am innocent and I’m not suicidal. If I did this, then it means that I shoved my fist in the fears of Black Americans in this country for over 400 years and the fears of the LGBTQ community,” Smollett exclaimed.
“Your honor, I respect you and I respect your decision, but I did not do this and I am not suicidal,” he added. “If anything happens to me when I go in there, I did not do it to myself, and you must all know that.”
After Smollett was found guilty on five counts of felony disorderly conduct following an eight-day trial late last year, Linn sentenced him to 30 months of probation, the first five of which he must serve in the Cook County jail, and ordered him to pay the city of Chicago $120,000 in restitution and a $25,000 fine.
Linn labeled the actor a “disgrace” and said his performance during the trial, in which he testified on his own behalf, was “pure perjury,” as he handed down his conviction.
