CHICAGO — In a stunning move, the Illinois Supreme Court on Thursday overturned the convictions for former “Empire” actor Jussie Smollett, finding that a special prosecutor’s decision to retry him violated his rights after the Cook County state’s attorney’s office previously dropped all charges against him.

The high court’s decision turns another page in perhaps the most controversial and closely-watched low-level felony case in Illinois in recent years.

“We are aware that this case has generated significant public interest and that many people were dissatisfied with the resolution of the original case and believed it to be unjust,” the opinion said. “Nevertheless, what would be more unjust than the resolution of any one criminal case would be a holding from this court that the State was not bound to honor agreements upon which people have detrimentally relied.”

The court remanded the case to the trial court to enter a dismissal.

Smollett was convicted by a jury of five of six counts of disorderly conduct in December of 2021 for lying to the police on Jan. 29, 2019, when he reported that two men attacked him in the Loop, hitting him, yelling homophobic slurs and placing a noose around his neck. He was sentenced to 150 days in jail, 30 months of probation and $130,160 in restitution.

But he has yet to serve the sentence, as a lengthy appeal has wound its way through the system. A lower court previously affirmed the convictions in a split 2-1 decision, but the Supreme Court agreed to hear the actor’s appeal.

Central to his appeal was a decision by the Cook County state’s attorney’s office to drop charges against Smollett, a move that at the time embroiled State’s Attorney Kim Foxx and her office in controversy.

Cook County prosecutors had charged Smollett with disorderly conduct for concocting the hoax with brothers Abimbola and Olabinjo Osundairo, who testified that he paid them to perpetrate the attack, but about a month later prosecutors dropped all counts against him, noting that he forfeited his $10,000 bond and had done community service. Foxx previously handed the case to deputies, saying she had recused herself.

“Finally, it defies credulity to believe that defendant would agree to forfeit $10,000 with the understanding that CCSAO could simply reindict him the following day,” the court wrote in the opinion.

The initial hate crime report – as well as the subsequent hoax allegations against Smollett – generated fevered, international attention, as did the abruptness of the dropped charges. The office’s move to dismiss the case drew questions and criticism in part because of the opacity behind the surprising decision.

Former Cook County Judge Michael Toomin appointed Dan Webb, a former U.S. attorney, as special prosecutor amid scrutiny around the decision, finding, among other things, that Foxx had improperly recused herself. Webb eventually refiled charges.

Smollett’s attorneys have argued that the dropped charges amounted to an agreement between prosecutors and the actor – particularly pointing out that the state kept his $10,000 bond. They argued that double jeopardy had attached when Smollett forfeited the bail money.

Attorneys for the state, though, contended that prosecutors who drop charges are not precluded from refiling charges in the same case.

Smollett was sentenced to 150 days in jail, 30 months of probation and $130,160 in restitution.

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