On Thursday, the Illinois Supreme Court ruled that Jussie Smollett —one of the stars from the popular television series “Empire” — would have his 2019 hate crime hoax conviction overturned. Now, conservatives are going in on X (formerly Twitter) about how Smollett’s race played a major role in this decision.
Smollett was initially charged with staging a fake hate crime against himself. He was ultimately convicted on five counts of disorderly conduct and lying to the police for the scheme, per court documents.
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However, the court found that special prosecutors violated Smollett’s constitutional rights in bringing a new indictment against him after his original charge was dropped and he agreed to forfeit his $10,000 bond. The actor will appear in court next to hear the formal dismissal of the charges.
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The case caught national attention. Although the conviction being overturned stemmed from prosecutorial error, MAGA supporters on X have a different interpretation of what happened. “Democrats get away with anything,” one user wrote.
Another user, @JuevosBanchero, took things a step further by insisting that being Black is the reason Smollett’s conviction was vacated.
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“Jussie Smollett is above the law largely because of his connections, but also because of his race. He belongs to a privileged class in this age of activist justice, when a man like Daniel Penny must stand trial before a kangaroo court because of his race,” they stated.
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Another conservative X personality, @DogRightGirl, actually used the term “Black privilege” to describe the so-called injustice she feels that was carried out.
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Another user, @Slayteens, quickly followed suit and repeated the phrase to insist Smollett’s Blackness worked in his favor regarding his legal woes—which is just untrue.
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On Thursday, Smollett’s attorney Nenye E. Uche thanked the Illinois Supreme Court for “restoring order to Illinois’ criminal law jurisprudence.”
“This was not a prosecution based on facts, rather it was a vindictive persecution and such a proceeding has no place in our criminal justice system,” Uche said per USA Today.
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“Ultimately, we are pleased that the rule of law was the big winner today.”