Juror explains why Jussie Smollett's hate hoax starring role got thumbs down
“It was not evenly split, but there were some doubters,” the juror said.
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Jurors at former Empire star Jussie Smollett’s hate hoax trial in Chicago gave the actor 12 thumbs down for his performance on the stand.
One unidentified juror told the Chicago Sun-Times that the jury knew that Smollett was lying at his trial and found the two Nigerian brothers paid off to perform the bogus beatdown more believable.
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Smollett, 39, was convicted Friday on five of the six counts of felony disorderly conduct he was facing.
“It wasn’t an easy decision,” the juror told the newspaper. “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?”
The openly gay actor’s life — and career — imploded when he staged the 2019 “racist” attack, paying the brothers $3,500 to do the deed. Smollett claimed his “attackers” beat him, hung a noose around his neck and shouted racist and homophobic epithets at him.
According to the juror, the panel deliberated for hours — not because there was doubt about Smollett’s innocence — but because they wanted to be diligent.
“It was not evenly split, but there were some doubters,” the juror said. “I just hope that (Smollett and his legal team) know that we went in there with an open mind. I listened to both sides. We wanted to make sure that those who had doubts didn’t feel pressured.”
In addition, the prosecution put together a more compelling case while Smollett’s lawyer was “just shooting from the hip,” the juror said. The defence witnesses were there to bolster the accused’s goodness bona fides, not further his case, the juror added.
The former rising TV star is slated to be sentenced next month and a free ride is likely out of the question because he lied for “hours and hours and hours” on the witness stand.
Experts told the New York Post that Smollett’s stubbornness is a textbook sign of a narcissistic personality disorder.
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“When someone launches something like this, there’s a grandiose assumption they’ll be able to get away with it,” clinical psychologist Dr. Ramani Durvasula told the tabloid. “Then it slides into something delusional and the delusion becomes the truth and it becomes the truth he lives in. It becomes his reality.”
Observers questioned why Smollett never accepted that he had been caught out and simply moved on.
“Nothing cuts through the matrix of this arrogance and delusion and entitlement,” Durvasula said. “They’re all defences against a deep well of insecurity and inadequacy. Anyone who walks around like this is covering up a stench and it’s something they don’t want others to smell.”
Meanwhile, Smollett still faces a $130,000 lawsuit from the City of Chicago after more than two dozen cops were assigned to his case.
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