Photo: Alison Buck/Getty
Posting an image with “#FreeJussie” written in white font on top of a black background on Saturday, theBirds of Preystar began the caption of herpost, writing, “Black Americans are incarcerated in state prisons at nearly five times the rate of White Americans.”
“Jussie is innocent,” she continued. “And…you don’t have to believe in his innocence to believe he should be free.”
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Prior to walking into Cook County Judge James Linn’s courtroom, the actor and musician was looking at several possible sentences in connection to the Jan. 29, 2019, incident.
At Linn’s discretion, Jussie received 30 months of felony probation, with the first 150 days to be spent in jail, PEOPLE previously confirmed. In addition to his sentence, Jussie will pay $120,106 in restitution and receive the maximum fine of $25,000, Linn ordered.
When the sentence was announced, Jussie stood, removed his mask, and angrily maintained his innocence before telling the court, “I am not suicidal, and if anything happens to me when I go [to jail], I didn’t do it to myself and you must all remember that.”
Jussie, an openly gay Black actor, was originallyindicted in March 2019 with 16 counts of disorderly conductforallegedly filing a false report, claiming that, while on his way home from a Subway sandwich shop in Chicago,two men attacked himlate at night.
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Jussie initially claimed that black-clad, masked men spewed racist and homophobic slurs at him. He further claimed the men had puta rope around hisneck during the attack.
Outside the Chicago courthouse on March 10, Jussie’s other siblings spoke with reporters about his sentencing and his innocence, perE! News.
“[The judge] shamed my brother, he spoke about his arrogance,” brother Jojo Smollett, 44, said. “He doesn’t know the struggles my brother is encountering. He doesn’t know anything that he’s dealing with.”
“This should not be a controversial statement because it is the absolute truth,” older sister Jazz Smollett, 41, noted. “What should be controversial is the entire miscarriage of justice his whole ordeal has been.”
“I pray the peace of God over my brother and all victims of oppression and hate,” she added. “I pray that we can do better as a world.”
Jussie’s younger brother, Jocqui Smollett, 32, meanwhile, said his brother is a “complete victim,” explaining, “he was attacked and he is now going to jail for being attacked.”
source: people.com
