Appellate Court Upholds Jussie Smollett’s Disorderly Conduct Convictions, Sentence

An Illinois appellate court has upheld former “Empire” star Jussie Smollett’s disorderly conduct convictions, nearly two years after a jury found him guilty of lying about orchestrating an elaborate hate crime against himself. In a 2-1 decision published Friday, the First District court rejected the actor’s claims that he had faced double jeopardy when a special prosecutor filed renewed charges against him after Cook County prosecutors dropped their initial criminal case. Smollett was subsequently tried in 2021 and convicted of five counts of disorderly conduct. He was ordered to serve...