A juror who sat on the case of actor Jussie Smollett told ABC 7 Chicago that he felt “sad” about the case and is still puzzled over the actor’s motive, noting the 39-year-old’s successful career.
Andre Hope, 63, the only juror who was black, “said he took no pleasure” in finding Smollett guilty on five counts of disorderly conduct, the report said, adding, “He called the entire case ‘sad’ and said while the evidence against the actor was overwhelming, he’s still left with one unanswered question.”
“I still have not figured out a motive for why he did, why this had to even happen,” Hope told the outlet. “He was a star.”
“I was shocked,” he said of being picked for the jury. “I was completely shocked that I was even picked. At that point, I took it very seriously.”
Though he’s confused of Smollett’s motive, Hope said the actor’s claims don’t add up.
“Two o’clock in the morning. Cold outside. When you just use your common sense as what’s there, yeah it just, it didn’t add up,” the juror explained.
“He also said the noose, used in the staged attack, was a critical piece of evidence,” the report detailed. “After wearing the rope home, Smollett claimed he took it off then put it on for police to see.”
“As an African American person, I’m not putting that noose back on at all,” Hope asserted.
Hope said the jury was professional but pushed back that he was the only black person selected. “Because how can we say that this is a jury of your peers when there’s only one African American?” he said. “And there were plenty there, so you could’ve gotten two, three four. African Americans can handle the truth, too. And we can give an impartial judgement on a case.”
Another juror, a female who asked to remain anonymous, said Friday that the jury was confused on what specifically was being asked to find Smollett guilty on the sixth count of disorderly conduct, and therefore did not find him guilty, which the juror said felt like a “favor to Jussie,” the Chicago Sun-Times reported:
The jury in Jussie Smollett’s trial felt they were doing him “a favor” when they convicted the former “Empire” actor on five counts of disorderly conduct, but not a sixth, one of the jurors told the Sun-Times Friday.
The decision was one the jury struggled with, the juror said.
In the end, “we all thought we were doing Jussie a favor,” said the juror, who asked not to be named.
“We were told it was an aggravated battery because he said they were wearing a mask,” the female juror explained, adding that “in all [of Smollett’s] accounts of what happened, he mentioned a mask.”
The Sun-Times reported that the juror noted that “if prosecutors had charged all the battery counts the same,” Smollett would have likely been found guilty on all six counts.
The juror said during the interview that the jury was reluctant to quickly find Smollett guilty on all counts, noting the actor’s elderly mother in the courtroom and the possibility that Smollett could serve time in prison.
“It wasn’t an easy decision,” she said. “You’ve got the mother sitting there. You feel bad. We didn’t know what the penalty would be. Are we sending this guy to jail?”
“It was not evenly split, but there were some doubters,” the juror continued, adding, “I just hope that [Smollett and his legal team] know that we went in there with an open mind. I listened to both sides. We wanted to make sure that those who had doubts didn’t feel pressured.”
Back in January 2019, Smollett claimed he was targeted and attacked by apparent supporters of then-President Donald Trump in an anti-gay, anti-black hate crime. His alleged attackers, whom he allegedly described as white males who yelled “This is MAGA country,” were brothers Abimbola and Olabinjo Osundairo. Notably, the brothers are both black men who knew the “Empire” star before the incident and have claimed Smollett orchestrated the “hoax.”
A jury on Thursday found Smollett guilty on five counts of disorderly conduct related to the incident. He has not yet been sentenced, but is facing up to three years in prison on each count, NBC Chicago reported.
Related: Juror On Smollett Case Speaks Out: ‘We All Thought We Were Doing Jussie A Favor’