A court overturned Jussie Smollett’s 2019 conviction that prosecutors said was rigged.

The Illinois Supreme Court on Thursday overturned the conviction of actor Jussie Smollett on charges that he committed a racist and homophobic attack in Chicago in 2019 and lied to police.

The state’s highest court ruled that a special prosecutor should not have been allowed to intervene after the Cook County district attorney initially dropped the charges against Smollett in exchange for his $10,000 bond and community service. The verdict and appeal did not address Smollett’s claim of innocence.

Smollett, who is black and gay, said two men beat him, shouted homophobic slurs and threw a rope around his neck, prompting a massive manhunt by Chicago police and national outrage. Smollett was on a television show The kingdomwhich was filmed in Chicago, and prosecutors say he carried out the attack because he was unhappy with the studio’s response to hate mail he received.

“We know that this case has generated a lot of public interest and that many people are not satisfied with the verdict in the first trial and believe it was unfair,” wrote Judge Elizabeth Rochford in the 5-0 decision. “Nonetheless, what would be more unjust than the settlement of any criminal case would be the holding of this court that the state was not bound to honor the covenants upon which the people were in bad faith.”

Smollett’s attorneys said the case was over when Cook County District Attorney Kim Foxx’s office dropped the original 16 misdemeanor charges. A grand jury returned the charges after a special prosecutor took over the case. A judge sentenced Smollett to five counts of misconduct in 2021.

Email messages seeking comment were sent Thursday to Foxx’s office and to Smollett’s attorney, who disputed that Smollett has been victimized by a racially politicized justice system.

Testimony at his trial revealed that Smollett paid $3,500 US to two men he knew. The kingdom to make an attack. Prosecutors say he told them what he heard and shouted that Smollett was “in MAGA country,” an apparent reference to Donald Trump’s US presidential campaign slogan.

Smollett said there was “no deception” and that he was the victim of a hate crime in his hometown of Chicago.

He was sentenced to 150 days in jail – six of which he served before being released pending an appeal – 30 months of probation and ordered to pay approximately $130,000 US in restitution.

The appeals court ruled in favor of Smollett’s conviction, stating that no one promised Smollett that he would not be prosecuted after accepting the original plea deal.

Illinois Supreme Court Chief Justice Mary Jane Theis and Justice Joy Cunningham did not participate in Thursday’s decision.