Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2019/03/08/jussie-smollett-indicted-on-16.html
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I got nothing.
What a dumb ass.
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16 felony charges for one incident sure does sound excessive.
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Looks like he’s set to get a lot more than 47 months.
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Yeah it’s more than a little excessive. It sounds like they are charging him with each time he reported a false crime and each time he reported that crime to police too which is extremely shitty.
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I didn’t think it was possible to make him look even vaguely sympathetic.
Did they ask someone to hold their beer before issuing this?
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Came here to say this. He’ll likely get a longer sentence than Paul Manafort. A much longer sentence than Brock Turner.
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Not sure if it’s relevant to this indictment, but according to the Serial Podcast season three (https://serialpodcast.org/) it is standard to file multiple indictments as a way to incentivize people to plead guilty to some of them, since pleading is the most likely outcome. Really can’t say enough about season 3 of this podcast.
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I was just thinking about this in comparison to what Manafort has been sentenced to thus far.
Some people wanna clutch all the pearls when people allude to the guillotine, but shit like this helps pave the pathway back to it.
Unfuck Smollett for being a selfish dumbass, but unfuck Manafort even more, because his crimes have and will continue to have a detrimental impact on our society as a whole.
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I sincerely doubt anyone would have been been charged with that many felonies if the attack had been real.
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Yup. The US “justice” system functions to make fighting any charges disproportionately more costly in every sense than pleading out, irrespective of actual guilt or evidence. Part of it’s inexperienced public defenders encouraging their clients to take a deal so they have less work to put in on each case. But part of it is the simple reality of the prosecutorial discretion in recommending far lighter sentencing guidelines for defendants who plead guilty.
Unfuck Smollett and unfuck the injustice system.
And unfuck Manafort while I’m at it.
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Especially for bringing the racial aspect to it. Dumbass could’ve simply staged a simple mugging and not have complicated things further.
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I kind of feel like this is one of those, don’t illegally mess with people enforcing laws if you don’t want prosecution to throw the book at you. They’re the gatekeepers of the law and they don’t like to be made fools of. If he’s got a ton of money he can get a good defense. C’est la vie.
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Hell, if it was the exact same scenario with a White celeb who faked a hate attack on himself, 5 will get you 10 that the punishment would be nowhere near this severe.
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Wow, I didn’t think anyone could milk any more political grandstanding from this. But here you are, proving me wrong.
The fact he cried wolf and then tried to leverage that for financial gain is a real douche move that takes away from every other person who has suffered attacks because of the colour of their skin or sexual orientation.
They should throw the book at him, its the least he deserves.
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Check yourself, dude; and maybe hop the fuck down from that there high-ass horse you’ve perched yourself up on, yo.
I’ve already repeatedly repudiated Smollet for being a fucking moron whose selfish actions have only made the ongoing struggle against racism and inequality that much harder.
He deserves punishment for his bullshit antics, and I never said nor even implied otherwise.
That his punishment is much harsher than other criminals who have committed worse crimes is another issue.
My point about the inequality in the so called US justice system when it comes to skin color is highly valid, and doesn’t have shit to do with “political grand standing” so miss me with your attention seeking straw man.
Don’t address me again, I have no further interest in engaging you in conversation.
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I have to stand up for the public defenders here. It’s not inexperience or lazines on the part of the public defenders. It’s that the vast majority of them have a caseload that would take 6-8 attorneys to properly work. Most PD offices are dramatically underfunded. There are only 24 hours in the day, the cases happen on a timeline, and the defense can only get it extended some of the time. They’d give each client the hours if they had them, they just don’t have the hours.
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Oh my god do they. I worked for a DA office my 3L year and some of the overcharging was absurd. I don’t recall ever hearing anyone admit it, but I suspect that it happens more frequently when they feel they have a weak case or a defendant they think is sympathetic and may inspire jury nullification. If you’re a defendant and the deal is two years but you’re attorney says they can get you off, with a ten percent risk you get thirty years because who can say when it goes to a jury? People plead out like that all the time.
And the DA will just call it good docket management.
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Yeah, I don’t know how one crime gets unfurled into 16 charges…
That feels like double jeopardy (even if it isn’t). Like, “We’re charging you with four counts of murder because boy, that guy was really dead!”
A felony generally means, what, a minimum one year sentence? They’d have to drop a lot of those charges to bring it down to 4 years…
Or a non-celeb. That woman who carved a backwards “B” in her cheek and claimed it was Obama supporters who did it? No jail time at all (though that leniency may have been because of mental illness). I recollect asshole '80s talk show host Morton Downey Jr. faked an attack on himself by Nazis - looking it up, it doesn’t seem he was ever even charged with anything.
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