Black Jussie Smollett Trial Juror Appalled He Put the ‘Noose’ Back On for Police: ‘It Didn’t Add Up

A black juror who was on the Chicago jury that found hate crime hoaxer Jussie Smollett guilty of five counts of felony disorderly conduct for filing a false police report after he hired two brothers from Nigeria to stage a fake hate crime against him says that the disgraced actor’s reaction to the noose doesn’t make sense.

Andre Hope, who said he took no pleasure in finding Smollett guilty of lying to police and staging a racist and homophobic attack on himself, told WLS-TV he cannot get past how the actor put a noose around his neck when police officers were coming to interview him.

After wearing the rope home, Smollett claimed he took it off, and then put it back around his neck for police to see.

“As an African American person, I’m not putting that noose back on at all,” said Hope, who called the Smollett case “sad.”

“Two o’clock in the morning. Cold outside,” Hope added of the details surrounding the actor’s hate crime hoax story. “When you just use your common sense as what’s there, yeah it just, it didn’t add up.”

Hope said the jury never argued, was never deadlocked, and took its time to be thorough during nine and a half hours of deliberation, reports WLS-TV.

“I still have not figured out a motive for why he did — why this had to even happen,” the 63-year-old juror added.

At trial, the two Nigerian brothers, Abel and Ola Osundairo, testified that Smollett recruited them to carry out the fake attack. Hope said the counter narrative put forward by the actor’s attorneys — that the Osundairo brothers attacked him for real — simply did not make sense.

Eddie Johnson — who was the Chicago police superintendent in January 2019 when Smollett said he was attacked — echoed Hope’s sentiments, telling NewsNation Now, “I was concerned because I don’t think there’s many black people in America with a noose around their neck and wouldn’t immediately take it off.”

Smollett was found guilty of five counts of felony disorderly conduct for filing a false police report after he hired two brothers from Nigeria to stage a fake hate crime against him.

The class 4 felony carries a maximum sentence of up to 3 years in prison for each count — but experts believe the actor will likely get probation and be sentenced to community service if convicted. Smollett was acquitted of just one count of disorderly conduct.

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