Jussie Smollett, surrounded by his own security team, walked out of Cook County jail and into a waiting car without a word to the press on Wednesday after an appeals court ruled earlier that the actor should not have been locked up before the pending appeal of his 150-day prison sentence.
The ruling, signed by two members of a three-judge appeals court panel, came after Smollett’s legal team had argued that he would almost certainly have served his full sentence before that appeal was decided on.
Since his sentencing last week for concocting a fake racist and homophobic attack against himself and lying to police about it, Smollett had reportedly been held in protective custody—which his family said was a psych ward in Cook County Jail.
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At a press conference late Wednesday just after Smollett was driven away, lawyer Nenye Uche, who wasn’t shy about ripping into the press over “tabloid stuff,” claimed that his client only drank “ice water” and ate no food during his six days behind bars.
“Ice water, that’s been his food and liquid. I can only imagine if I was in jail for something I didn’t do, I wouldn’t be eating,” Uche said.
Further, Uche said Smollett, ahead of being released Wednesday, “pushed his hands on the glass… and his eyes got teary… and he said ‘I nearly lost hope in our constitutional system.’”
“In this country you cannot punish a person twice,” the lawyer continued. “People were not focused on the constitutionality of the prosecution.”
Smollett was released on Wednesday after posting a personal recognizance bond of $150,000, meaning he did not need to put that money up but would forfeit it if he failed to appear in court.
At his sentencing last Thursday, Smollett had dramatically raised his fist and declared: “I am not suicidal! I am not suicidal! And I am innocent!”
