Empire star Taraji Henson has joined the call to “Free Jussie” after disgraced actor Jussie Smollett was sentenced to 150 days in jail for staging a hoax hate crime.
Recalling the murder of Emmett Till, Henson said in an Instagram post on Sunday that Jussie Smollett should not face jail time for wasting over $100,000 in police resources to frame Trump supporters as violent, homophobic racists, arguing that white people have walked free for far lesser offenses.
“I am not here to debate you on his innocence but we can agree that the punishment does not fit the crime,” she said while sharing a “#FREEJUSSIE” meme. “Emmett Till was brutally beat and ultimately murdered because of a lie and none of the people involved with his demise spent one day in jail, even after Carolyn Bryant admitted that her claims were false.”
“No one was hurt or killed during Jussie’s ordeal. He has already lost everything, EVERYTHING!” she added.
Henson said that Jussie Smollett’s blacklist in Hollywood will be “punishment enough.”
“An artist not able to create that in itself is punishment enough,” she asserted. “He can’t get a job. No one in Hollywood will hire him and again as an artist who loves to create, that is prison. My prayer is that he is freed and put on house arrest and probation because in this case, that would seem fair.”
Henson disabled all comments after people voiced their distaste for her evocation of Emmett Till. Her post followed that of actress Jurnee Smollett, Jussie’s sister, who declared him “innocent.”
“Black Americans are incarcerated in state prisons at nearly five times the rate of White Americans,” wrote Jurnee. “Jussie is innocent. And… you don’t have to believe in his innocence to believe he should be free.”
In early 2019, the Empire actor claimed he fell victim to a hate crime on a cold winter’s night in Chicago at the hands of two men who derided him with homophobic slurs while yelling “this is MAGA country” as they tied a noose around his neck. Many in the media took Smollett’s story at face value until evidence revealed that he had hired two brothers from Nigeria to stage the attack, supposedly in an effort to boost his salary on the show. Last week, Smollett was sentenced to 150 days in jail after being tried and convicted for five counts of felony disorderly conduct for filing a false police report in December of last year.
Smollett will reportedly serve out his sentence in protective custody.
"I am not suicidal!" #JussieSmollett was sentenced to 150 days in prison for hate crime hoax. Smollett proclaimed his innocence in an outburst leaving the courtroom.
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— Court TV (@CourtTV) March 11, 2022
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