Legal counsel Jussie Smollett has demanded the actor’s immediate release from prison, arguing that every second he remains behind bars he could be harmed.
On Thursday (March 10), the former Empire star was sentenced to 150 days in prison for “selfish, arrogant and narcissistic” staging a hate crime that the judge said “ruined his life” and was designed solely to satisfy his “thirst » attention.
Smollett was accused of lying to city police about a racist and homophobic attack in downtown Chicago in the early hours of January 29, 2019 by masked MAGA supporters.
According to Rolling Stone, Smollett’s lawyers said one of his siblings, also registered as his prison contact, received a threatening call to harm the actor.
“I hope what they do to that guy in jail is what they are going to do, right. They’ll take a broom handle and they’ll take this little [expletive]shove it in there and it’ll go,'[shrieking sound]says a man in a video of the call shared by the convicted actor’s legal team on Monday (March 14).
The threat appears to echo a 1997 police brutality case against Haitian immigrant Abner Louima. Police officer Justin Volpe pleaded guilty to using a wooden stick to rape Louima in the police station bathroom after arresting him for disorderly conduct outside a nightclub.
Actor Jussie Smollett speaks to Judge James Lynn after the verdict is announced at the Leighton Criminal Courthouse in Chicago, Illinois.
(via REUTERS)
Smollett’s legal team also argued that the actor received “violent threats” on social media that “no doubt reflect the hatred and desire for physical harm towards Smollett that he may experience during his imprisonment.”
According to TMZ, lawyers have produced an affidavit from a doctor alleging that Smollett has a weakened immune system and is at higher risk of contracting Covid-19.
Earlier this week, Smollett’s family said he had been admitted to a psychiatric facility and believed he could commit suicide despite being mentally healthy.
The Cook County Sheriff’s Office did not directly respond to The Independent’s questions about whether Smollett was under mental health supervision, although the statement said he was not in solitary confinement but was “under constant supervision” in his own cell.