According to cbs news;
Jussie Smollett was sentenced to 30 months felony probation, which will include 150 days in jail, on Thursday for lying to police about an alleged hate crime in 2019. Smollett, best known for his role in the TV show “Empire,” was convicted in December of five counts of lying to police about the attack but has maintained throughout his extensive legal battles that it was real.
Smollett faced up to three years in prison for each of the five felony counts. He will spend the first 150 days of his probation in the Cook County jail, starting immediately, Judge James Linn said. He will also have to pay $120,106 restitution to the city of Chicago in addition to the maximum $25,000 fine.
The judge also denied a motion to reconsider Smollett’s sentence or temporarily stay his jail sentence while his counsel filed an appeal. “The wheels of justice turn slowly but sometimes the hammer of justice has to fall and it’s falling right now,” Linn said. “I’m not staying this.”
In court on Thursday, Linn spent a significant amount of time addressing the defendant, saying his case has received an “unprecedented” amount of attention, the kind he’s only seen for murder trials.”Let me tell you Mr. Smollett, I know that there is nothing that I will do here today that can come close to the damage you’ve already done to your own life,” he said.
“You’ve turned your life upside down by your misconduct and shenanigans, you’ve destroyed your life as you knew it, and there’s nothing that any sentencing judge could do to you that can compare to the damage you’ve already caused yourself.”
At another point, the judge excoriated Smollett’s behavior, saying, “You’re just a charlatan pretending to be a victim of a hate crime, and that’s shameful”.
