A defense attorney for Jussie Smollett said on Thursday that they are going to appeal the actor’s guilty verdicts following the end of the trial.
Smollett was found guilty of five of the six charges of disorderly conduct against him following a nearly two-week trial, a jury ruled on Thursday.
After the jury read out the verdict, Smollett’s lead defense attorney, Nenye Uche, told reporters that the former Empire actor was disappointed and that he is “100% innocent.” He said Smollett’s team is confident “he’s going to be cleared of all, all accusations on all charges.”
“The verdict is inconsistent,” he said during a press conference following the verdicts. “You can’t say Jussie is lying and say Jussie is not lying for the same exact incident.”
“We are confident in our appellate system,” Uche said. “We are confident in our Illinois Supreme Court, and we’re confident that at the end of the day, what’s out there in the news media and in the gossip forums are not going to stand a chance in court.”
The 39-year-old actor was found guilty on Thursday of staging a hoax hate crime, a racist attack against himself almost three years ago, and then lied to Chicago police about it.
Smollett showed no visible reaction as he stood and faced the jury in the courtroom when the verdict was read, according to Fox News.
The jury found Smollett guilty on five counts of disorderly conduct — for each separate time he was charged with lying to police that two Trump supporters attacked, beat him up, tied a noose around his neck, and dumped him in bleach in an ill-conceived bid to raise his public profile. However, the actor was acquitted on a sixth count of lying to a detective in mid-February, weeks after Smollett reported the fake attack.
A pre-sentencing investigation is underway, and attorneys will meet via conference call to determine a date for pre-sentencing motions, according to Judge Linn.
