芝加哥-三年多以后朱西·斯莫利特他告诉警方，他是一名种族主义者和恐同者在黑暗寒冷的芝加哥街道上袭击的受害者，围绕着这位演员的所有问题——从他是否上演了一场假袭击到他为什么会做这样的事情——现在可以归结为两个问题:他会承认他对警察撒谎吗?他会被送进监狱吗?
周四，在陪审团认定他向警方撒谎有罪三个月后，这些问题将在电视节目《帝国》(Empire)的前明星斯莫列特(Smollett)返回法庭接受判决时得到答案。在法庭上，他被认定在检察官声称他自己策划的袭击事件上向警方撒谎有罪。
斯莫列特被判六项扰乱治安的重罪中的五项——对警察撒谎。他在第六项指控中被判无罪。他面临每项罪名最高三年的监禁。
库克县法官詹姆斯·林可以下令判处最高刑期、更短的刑期或对斯摩莱特进行缓刑，这意味着他不必蹲监狱。他可以下令罚款和赔偿——金额可能高达数万美元。
被判向警察撒谎的被告很少入狱，这是伊利诺伊州最不严重的重罪之一。但这是极少数情况。
检察官显示，黑人同性恋斯摩莱特在2019年1月不遗余力地实施仇恨犯罪。检察官说，他雇佣并付钱给两个兄弟来实施袭击，告诉他们要喊什么种族主义和仇视同性恋的辱骂，并大喊斯摩莱特在“MAGA Country”，这是指唐纳德·特朗普(Donald Trump)总统竞选的竞选口号。
兄弟俩作证说，斯莫列特给了他们钱，让他们买绳子，做成套在他脖子上的套索，还买了滑雪面罩来遮住他们的脸。然后，他给他们指了指他希望场景播放的地方，希望能被监控摄像头捕捉到。
在这样做的时候，他引发了对该国种族和性别认同等问题的原始情绪，并在一个城市引发了一场涉及数十名官员的大规模调查，斯莫列特一直坚称这是由两名他不认识的男子发起的非常真实的袭击。
在听证会期间，检察官和斯莫列特的律师将有机会提出证人，并允许斯莫列特做陈述。与审判不同的是，Linn已经同意让摄影师和电视摄像机进入法庭进行听证——这意味着公众将首次看到和听到Smollett在法庭上的发言。
一个关键问题是，特别检察官丹·韦布(Dan Webb)是否会要求林恩判处斯摩莱特入狱或监禁。韦伯在接受美联社采访时没有透露。
“我想这可能是我在量刑时要指出的一点，”韦伯说，“斯莫列特先生不仅向警方撒谎，连续几周毫无理由地在这座城市造成严重破坏，而且他还在宣誓后撒谎，让问题变得更加复杂。”
为了说明这一点，一些法律专家说，他们预计韦伯会传唤执法官员作证。
“芝加哥警察局(CPD)的一些人可以证明这一罪行如何直接影响了警察局，从实际犯罪和城市发生的成本中转移了资源，”乔·麦克马洪说，他作为特别检察官在2014年黑人少年拉泉·麦克唐纳(Laquan McDonald)的致命枪击案中赢得了芝加哥警察杰森·范·代克(Jason McDonald)的谋杀罪。
麦克马洪和其他人还表示，韦伯可能会传唤证人作证，说明斯摩莱特的计划可能对种族主义和恐同攻击的合法受害者产生的影响。
“他们可以说，他(斯莫列特)的虚假报告使得真正的受害者不太可能站出来，并将继续默默忍受，”麦克马洪说。
专家表示，几乎可以肯定斯莫列特会发言。他可以像他在审判中所做的那样覆盖相同的领域，在审判中他作证说他广泛参与慈善组织，包括一个在黑人社区抗击艾滋病的团体。他可能会再次谈到他已经受到的惩罚，他的职业生涯已经被摧毁。
斯莫列特每天都出现在法庭外，他的支持者为他的人格担保，他已经得到了数十人的支持，包括牧师杰西·杰克森和全美有色人种协进会总统。支持者提醒法官，这位演员广泛的志愿工作和对慈善事业的捐赠，他们写信给Linn，要求宽大处理:缓刑或社区服务，而不是监禁。
斯莫列特可以承认他策划了袭击，然后一再撒谎——包括在证人席上宣誓。但是他的首席律师Nenye Uche在审判后宣布他的当事人是无辜的，并发誓要上诉，并且从那以后没有说过任何暗示他会改变主意的话。
事实上，Uche计划提出动议驳回定罪，但法官很少批准这样的动议。
所有这些加起来会是什么还不知道。但是一些专家说，他们不认为法官会判处最高刑期，也不认为斯莫列特会看到监狱内部。但是，他们说，他很有可能在县监狱呆上几个月。
“他的所作所为是恶劣的，撒谎也是恶劣的，”特里·埃克尔说，他是芝加哥地区一位杰出的辩护律师，并没有参与此案。“事实上，你正在沿着种族和政治路线分裂一个已经严重分裂的社区，我认为这使这个案件超出了缓刑的范畴。”
Jussie Smollett to learn fate after staged attack conviction
The Associated Press
FILE - Former "Empire" actor Jussie Smollett leaves the Leighton Criminal Courthouse in...
CHICAGO -- More than three years afterJussie Smolletttold police he was the victim of a racist and homophobic attack on a dark, cold Chicago street, all of the questions swirling around the actor — from whether he staged a fake attack to why he would do such a thing — now boil down to two: Will he admit he lied to police and will he be sent to prison?
On Thursday, three months after a jury found him guilty of lying to police, those questions will be answered when Smollett, a onetime star of the television show “Empire,” returns for sentencing to the courtroom where he was found guilty of lying to police about an attack prosecutors contended he orchestrated himself.
Smollett was convicted of five of six felony counts of disorderly conduct — for lying to police. He was acquitted on a sixth count. He faces a maximum sentence of three years in prison per count.
Cook County Judge James Linn can order the maximum sentence, a much shorter sentence or put Smollett on probation, meaning he won’t have to spend time behind bars. And he can order a fine and restitution — the amount of which could reach tens of thousands of dollars.
Defendants convicted of lying to police, one of the least serious felonies in Illinois, rarely go to prison. But this is a rare case.
Prosecutors showed Smollett, who is Black and gay, went to extraordinary lengths in January 2019 to stage a hate crime. He hired and paid two brothers to carry out the attack, prosecutors said, told them what racist and homophobic slurs to shout, and to yell that Smollett was in “MAGA Country,” a reference to the campaign slogan of Donald Trump's presidential campaign.
The brothers testified that Smollett gave them money to buy the rope they were to fashion into a noose around his neck and the ski masks to hide their faces. He then pointed them to where he wanted the scene to play out in the hopes it would be captured by a surveillance camera.
In doing so, he sparked already raw emotions over issues such as race and sexual identity in the country, and triggered a massive investigation in a city involving dozens of officers in what Smollett has maintained was a very real attack by two men he did not recognize.
During the hearing, prosecutors and Smollett's attorneys will get a chance to present witnesses and allow Smollett to make a statement. And unlike the trial, Linn has agreed to let photographers and a television camera inside court for the hearing — meaning the public will for the first time get to see and hear Smollett speak in court.
A key question is whether Special Prosecutor Dan Webb will ask Linn to sentence Smollett to jail or prison. Webb, in an interview with The Associated Press, would not say.
“I think this will probably be a point that I make in sentencing," Webb said, "that not only did Mr. Smollett lie to the police and wreak havoc here in the city for weeks on end for no reason whatsoever, but then he compounded the problem by lying under oath.”
To drive home that point, some legal experts say they expect Webb to call law enforcement officials to testify.
“Somebody from the CPD (Chicago Police Department) can testify how this crime directly impacted the police department, diverted resources away from actual crimes and the cost the city incurred,” said Joe McMahon, who as a special prosecutor won a murder conviction for Chicago Police Officer Jason Van Dyke in the 2014 fatal shooting of black teenager Laquan McDonald.
McMahon and others also said Webb might call witnesses to testify about the impact that Smollett’s scheme may have had on legitimate victims of racist and homophobic attacks.
“They could say that his (Smollett’s) false report made it less likely that real victims will come forward and will continue to suffer in silence," McMahon said.
Experts say it is almost certain that Smollett will speak. He could cover the same ground as he did during the trial in which he testified about his extensive involvement in charity organizations, including a group that fights AIDS in the Black community. He might again speak of how he's already been punished, that his career has been devastated.
And Smollett, who made daily appearances outside the courtroom of supporters who vouched for his character, has already received the support of dozens of people, including the Rev. Jesse Jackson and the president of the NAACP. Reminding the judge of the actor's extensive volunteer work and donations to charitable causes, the supporters have sent letters to Linn asking for leniency: probation or community service instead of a prison sentence.
Smollett could admit he staged the attack and then lied repeatedly about it — including on the witness stand under oath. But his lead attorney, Nenye Uche, proclaimed his client innocent after the trial and vowed an appeal, and has said nothing since to suggest he will reverse course.
In fact, Uche plans to present a motion to dismiss the conviction, but judges rarely grant such motions.
What all of it will add up to is unknown. But several experts say they don't think the judge will impose the maximum sentence or that Smollett will see the inside of a prison. But, they say, there is a good chance he lands in county jail for several months.
“What he did was bad and lying about it was bad,” said Terry Ekl, a prominent Chicago-area defense attorney who is not involved with the case. “And the fact that you are dividing a community along racial and political lines that is already deeply divided, I think that moves this case out of the probation category.”
