Actor Jussie Smollett, now a convicted felon, is reportedly completely confident that an appeals court will overturn five felony convictions stemming from a hate crime hoax that he staged on himself back in 2019.
Smollett was found guilty on Thursday of five Class 4 felonies for telling police officers and detectives a myriad of lies from the staged hoax that he tried to blame on purported Trump supporters.
Fox News reported:
Count 1 accused him of telling responding Chicago Police Officer Muhammed Baig at around 2:45 a.m., some 45 minutes after the purported attack, that he was the victim of a hate crime. He said two attackers put a rope around his neck. Count 2 referred to Smollett telling the same officer he was a victim of a battery, describing attackers beating and pouring bleach on him.
Counts 3 and 4 stemmed from Smollett making the same claims but to a different officer, Kimberly Murray, later that morning, just before 6 a.m.
Count 5 accused Smollett of again telling Murray at around 7:15 p.m. that he was the victim of a battery. Count 6 referred to Smollett reporting on Feb. 14, 2019, to detective Robert Graves that he’d been a victim of an aggravated battery.
Speaking with reporters following the verdict, Nenye Uche, lead attorney for Smollett, said that the now-convicted felon was “100 percent confident” that he would be found innocent on appeal.
“We feel 100 percent confident that this case will be won on appeal,” Uche said. “Unfortunately, that’s not the route we wanted but sometimes that’s the route you have to take to win, especially a case where we remain 100 percent confident in our client’s innocence.”
“He’s a human being; he’s disappointed — but I will tell you this: I am very proud of him. I’m very, very proud of him,” he added. “He’s holding up very strong; he’s committed to clearing his name and he’s 100 percent confident that he’s going to get cleared by the appellate court.”
“Jussie was not accused of doing two different things and he was accused of doing one thing, and charged multiple times for the same incident, a jury cannot come out and say guilty of lying, but not guilty of lying,” Uche continued, “It doesn’t make sense.”
“From the first day of this case, his case has been prejudged, his case has been tried in the media, and it’s unfortunate, this is the United States of America,” he said, “We live in a constitutional democracy where everyone is presumed innocent but obviously, if we’re being honest, that hasn’t been the case.”
He concluded. “But we are confident in our appellate system, we’re 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.”
Related: Black Lives Matter Stands By Accused Hate Crime Hoaxer Smollett: Trial A ‘White Supremacist Charade’