An unnamed female juror in the Jussie Smollett hate-hoax case told media on Friday that “we all thought we were doing Jussie a favor” by finding him guilty on only five of the six counts brought before them.
“It wasn’t an easy decision. 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?”
“I just hope that [Smollett and his attorneys] know that we went in there with an open mind. I listened to both sides,” she continued, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.
“We were told it was an aggravated battery because he said they were wearing a mask. in all of [Smollett’s] accounts of what happened, he mentioned a mask,” mentioned the juror, also noting that Smollett probably would have been found guilty on the sixth count if the charge had been simple battery instead of aggravated battery.
The sixth count in question had to do with Smollett’s alleged lying to police officers on Feb. 14 during an interview. The other five counts have to do with Smollett’s actions in the hours following the “attack” on him.
She went on to say that they all “immediately” knew the disgraced Empire star was guilty and that his poor testimony led to his conviction for the hoax hate crime.
She said Smollett’s defense, which consisted mostly of “character witnesses,” was far less compelling than the testimonies of the Osundairo brothers.
Smollett, 39, was accused of staging the Jan. 29, 2019 attack in Chicago by paying brothers Abimbola and Olabinjo Osundairo $3,500 to carry out the phony assault, The NY Post reports.
Smollett, who is black and openly gay, said his attackers shouted homophobic and racist slurs and later filed a police report claiming he was the victim of a hate crime.
At the trial, the Osundairo testified that the attack was indeed a hoax.
The woman also said all 12 jurors were convinced of Smollett’s guilt but spent nine hours deliberating about proving it beyond a reasonable doubt.
She said Smollett’s attorney, Nenye Uche, seemed to be “just shooting from the hip” with her defense strategy compared to the prosecution, The Daily Mail reports.
Special Prosecutor Dan Webb made the case against Smollett seem ‘seamless’ with his ‘methodical, plodding’ style, she said.
The City of Chicago will now continue its lawsuit against Smollett for the extensive and expensive investigation they were forced to waste on his hoax. They want $130,000 from him.
The Osundairo brothers also plan to sue.
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