The jury in the Jussie Smollett trial ended its first deliberation session without reaching verdict.
Deliberations began Wednesday afternoon, following seven days of testimony centered on the actor’s alleged 2019 hate crime in Chicago. During five hours of closing arguments, prosecutors said there was “overwhelming” evidence that Smollett had staged the attack with two of his associates and filed a bogus hate crime report with authorities. The former Empire star has consistently denied faking the assault.
Special prosecutor Dan Webb attempted to discredit Smollett’s testimony by pointing to a number of details in the case, such as his refusal to hand over his cell phone to authorities and his false description of the alleged attackers.
Smollett, who is Black and openly gay, said he was leaving a sandwich shop at around 2 a.m. in late January when two white men assaulted him on the street. He claims the assailants shouted racial slurs as they put a rope around his neck and doused him with a liquid substance. The attackers were later identified as two Black men, brothers Abimbola and Olabinjo Osundairo; the former of whom had worked with Smollett as a personal trainer.
“If I say it was whites, that makes it more real,” Webb said in court Wednesday, per the Washington Post. “It gives it more credibility (that it was a hate crime) … I don’t think there can be any doubt in anyone’s mind who sat through this evidence that it was the Osundairo brothers, who are Black, who attacked him.”
The brothers said they took part in the alleged bogus attack, but it was Smollett who orchestrated it.
The 39-year-old actor is facing six felony disorderly conduct charges for allegedly filing a fake police report. If the jury finds him guilty, he could serve up to three years behind bars.
According to the Post, the jury will resume deliberations Thursday.
