A juror at the Jussie Smollett trial said the 12-member panel didn’t think he was a very good actor when he took the witness stand.
The unidentified juror said the panel knew the “Empire” actor was lying when he testified at his disorderly conduct trial — and found two brothers who claimed the actor paid them to stage a hate crime more credible.
She said the jury even felt they were doing the actor a favor by finding him guilty on only five of the six counts of felony disorderly conduct he was facing, she told the Chicago Sun-Times.
“It wasn’t an easy decision,” the juror told the outlet. “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?”
Smollett, 39, was accused of staging the Jan. 29, 2019 attack in Chicago by paying brothers Abimbola and Olabinjo Osundairo $3,500 to carry out the phony assault.
Smollett, who is black and openly gay, said his attackers shouted homophobic and racist slurs and later filed a police report claiming he was the victim of a hate crime.
At the trial, the Osundairo testified that the attack was indeed a hoax.
The jury deliberated for nine hours before reaching a verdict but not because some believed he was innocent — they just wanted to be diligent in the deliberations.
“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,” she said. “I listened to both sides. We wanted to make sure that those who had doubts didn’t feel pressured.”
She said lead defense attorney Nenye Uche seemed to be “just shooting from the hip,” while special prosecutor Dan Webb was more convincing, presenting a “seamless” case with a “methodical, plodding” style.
Smollett’s witnesses were largely “character witnesses” who could not testify as to the circumstances of the case, while police backed up the state’s account, she said.
She said the panel thought the Osundairos were not completely forthcoming in their testimony but found them more credible witnesses than the beleaguered actor.
The juror also said the decision to clear Smollett of the sixth count was due to confusion over the wording of jury instructions, not because they believed him innocent.
Otherwise, she said, “I believe we probably would have found him guilty” on all counts.
“We all thought we were doing Jussie a favor,” she added.