Each stars used the #FreeJussie hashtag on Instagram to advocate that the previous 'Empire' star be launched from his 150-day jail sentence.
Taraji P. Henson and Jurnee Smollett are talking out in assist of Jussie Smollet following the previous Empire star being sentenced to 150 days in jail for falsely reporting a hate crime.
In a put up shared late Saturday, Jussie’s sister and Lovecraft Nation star Jurnee Smollett shared a picture of a black sq. that includes solely the hashtag #FreeJussie in white lettering. Within the photograph of the caption, she addressed the disproportionate jailing price between Black and white Individuals earlier than declaring that he needs to be free.
“Black Individuals are incarcerated in state prisons at almost 5 occasions the speed of White Individuals,” she wrote. “Jussie is harmless. And … you don’t should imagine in his innocence to imagine he needs to be free.”
After being convicted again in December 2021, Jussie formally started his 150-day keep on the Prepare dinner County Jail on March 10 — as a part of a 30-month felony probation sentence. He was additionally ordered to pay $120,106 in restitution to the town of Chicago.
Smollett’s former Empire co-star Taraji P. Henson adopted his sister’s put up on Sunday together with her personal hashtag assertion that referenced the false allegations across the Emmett Until homicide.
“I'm not right here to debate you on his innocence however we are able to agree that the punishment doesn't match the crime,” she wrote. “Emmett Until was brutally beat and in the end murdered due to a lie and not one of the folks concerned together with his demise spent at some point in jail, even after Carolyn Bryant admitted that her claims have been false.”
Henson went on to say that “nobody was harm or killed throughout Jussie’s ordeal” and that he has “already misplaced all the things,” together with work in Hollywood.
“He can’t get a job. Nobody in Hollywood will rent him and once more as an artist who likes to create, that's jail,” she wrote. “My prayer is that he's freed and placed on home arrest and probation as a result of on this case that would appear honest.”
Smollett was dealing with as much as three years in jail after being convicted on every of his 5 felony counts of disorderly conduct, a cost filed for mendacity to the police. He was acquitted on a sixth depend. The previous Empire star had made headlines in January 2019 after reporting to the police that two males sporting masks had crushed him whereas utilizing racial and homophobic slurs on a avenue in Chicago.