Jussie Smollett “is a real victim” of a “real crime,” his attorney said in opening statements at the ex-Empire actor’s trial Monday, rejecting prosecutors’ allegation that he staged a homophobic and racist attack in Chicago.
Defense attorney Nenye Uche said two brothers attacked Smollett in January 2019 because they didn’t like him, and that a $3,500 check the actor paid the men was for training so he could prepare for an upcoming music video, not as payment for staging a hate crime, as prosecutors allege. Uche also suggested a third attacker was involved and told jurors there is not a “shred” of physical and forensic evidence linking Smollett to the crime prosecutors allege.
“Jussie Smollett is a real victim,” Uche said.
Be interesting if the jury ends up believing that…..
I’d be interested to see any evidence that the woman actually saw a white man, where he was, did he have a rope underneath his clothes. And of course whether there was big jump in her bank balance.
Presumably the feeds have also charged the two brothers that actually allegedly ‘committed’ the ‘crime’. If not then …
“Chicago police, who classified it as a hate crime and spent 3,000 staff hours on the investigation…”
Maybe if American police gave that much attention to every reported street assault, there would be fewer of them.
Firefoxxx,
Given that the two brothers in question are called Abimbola and Olabinjo Osundairo (an inconvenient fact either omitted or pushed to the bottom of the article in most media outlets), I doubt they’ve been charged with a racially-motivated offence.
It depends entirely on the race of the jurors; if they’re black, he’ll walk free.
This was very clearly a hate crime, intended to stir up hatred of White people. The Establishment doesn’t have a problem with this though, so it hasn’t been charged as such.
This might be Biden’s handlers chance to remove Kamala when all the evidence is led. She needed a lynching to push legislation… His family have political connections going a long way.
I can only imagine that Smullett got the idea from Dirty Harry where Scorpio gets duffed up to frame Callahan.
I wonder if the next step was to hijack a school bus ?
Grab the popcorn!
His lawyers have had nearly 3 years to “uncover ” corroborating evidence and witnesses. It’s hard to imagine a Chicago jury (probably of a similar mindset to those who acquitted OJ) convicting him no matter how preposterous his defence might appear to the rest of the world. It’s a case of putting one over on “the man”.