Jussie Smollett's Lawyer Speaks Out On Overturned Conviction

TMZ

Jussie Smollett's attorney, Nenye Uche, tells TMZ ... Jussie is "very pleasantly surprised," even "ecstatic." Uche emphasizes the court decision was unanimous.

Transcript

00:00First, give us your reaction to a pretty stunning reversal of fortune for Jesse Smollett.

00:09Yeah, it's, it's, it's, you know, I didn't see, I don't see it as a surprise.

00:14Obviously we're ecstatic, we're happy.

00:17But really my position is it shouldn't have gone this far.

00:21This prosecution was not a prosecution, it was a persecution.

00:25And prosecutions ought to be based on facts, not on vindictiveness.

00:29And that's what this seemed like.

00:31And that has no place in our American jurisprudence.

00:35And so I'm very happy.

00:36One thing I want to really emphasize here is this was not a divided court.

00:40This was a unanimous decision by our Supreme Court.

00:44And that speaks a lot as to what I'm saying now.

00:47And then, yeah, have you spoken to Jesse?

00:49What was his reaction to this?

00:53Obviously he's been out and starting his comeback in Hollywood.

00:58What was his reaction?

00:59He was very pleasantly surprised.

01:02You remember that Jesse has been through a lot.

01:05Each turn we've received bad news, whether it was at the lower court, in the trial court

01:11with the jury's verdict, whether it was the fact that the trial court even allowed this

01:15case to go forward, whether it was the appellate decision.

01:19And so I think from a human perspective, I'm not a psychologist, but I'm going to wager,

01:23I think there was a feeling of, you know, here we go again.

01:28And he was pleasantly surprised, to put it mildly.

01:31He's very ecstatic.

01:33And I would say the biggest feeling I got from him was a feeling of relief that this

01:38is behind him now and he can move forward with his life.

01:41I've been kind of just watching what's going on around the country.

01:45And I think this case is so relevant in that respect that you have a state's attorney,

01:50Kim Fox, who made a deal with Jesse.

01:53He lived up to his end of the bargain.

01:57And then when she dismissed the case, there was all this public pressure.

02:01Get him.

02:02Get him.

02:03And they caved to public pressure.

02:06And brought in a special prosecutor to finish the job, is how they would put it.

02:10And we have seen this now all over the country with prosecutors almost kind of like seeing

02:17which way the wind is blowing and making decisions based on public sentiment.

02:23That's what I'm feeling.

02:24I'm wondering if you think this is going to get noticed and we're going to get a course

02:29correction.

02:30I hope it does.

02:31Harvey, you raised two points and one point you don't explicitly say.

02:35But let's start with the explicit point you make.

02:38Of course, it's just disgraceful.

02:41Prosecutors.

02:42I used to be one ought to base prosecutions based on facts, not on popular decisions.

02:48What the public thinks you have to base it on.

02:51Can you prove the case?

02:53The implicit point you make is this.

02:54We live in an age of social media where there's a mass dissemination of information that is

03:00not facts and evidence where you have influencers, where you have potential jurors listening

03:06to tweets or watching tweets or listening to or watching YouTube videos or comedy skits.

03:12Right.

03:13So I think the courts need to really push back and defend the line of rule of law and

03:19due process and whether that means better jury instructions when it comes to well-known

03:26clients, whether they're popular or unpopular or something else, or whether there needs

03:32to be some sort of independent commission set up to educate prosecutors in a better

03:38way of how not to cave to public pressure.

03:41I don't know exactly the way forward.

03:44I just know the basic ones that affects trial lawyers, which is jury instructions.

03:50Celebrities right now, people that are well-known, they face an uphill battle.

03:55In the past, I think the assumption was if you were well-known, you were going to get

04:00away with it.

04:01Right now, it's not.

04:02It's actually against you if you're well-known and you get in trouble because everybody has

04:06an opinion.

04:07This is not the 1980s or the 1990s with the O.J. Simpson trial, where there's one news

04:12station delivering the information.

04:14Everyone is a reporter right now, and that's dangerous to the rule of law.

04:18I have no problem with that in terms of journalism, mass media, but in terms of the rule of law,

04:23something has to be done, and I hope something is done sooner rather than later.

04:29You won this case.

04:30There's absolutely no doubt about it.

04:32But there was a second trial, and there was a jury who heard all the evidence and concluded

04:40that Jussie Smollett faked this alleged assault.

04:44A hoax.

04:45So, what does this do for Jussie?

04:48Because he won on the law, but factually, can he overcome that?

04:53I think so.

04:54I 100 believe so.

04:56Remember that the two are not disconnected.

04:58They're very connected.

04:59He won on the law because the procedure that convicted him was unfair.

05:04It was a violation of his due process rights.

05:07It was a direct violation of the rule of law, and so anything derived from such a proceeding,

05:13one cannot say that that is valid.

05:17In fact, that juror's decision is null and void.

05:21Jussie is back where he started, which is he's presumed innocent, and there were a lot

05:25of problems with the cases, and this is what I'm going back to, which is everyone wanted

05:31Jussie Smollett convicted, period.

05:34I don't think we can deny that.

05:35A lot of people wanted him convicted.

05:37No one was willing to listen to the multiple reasonable doubts that scattered and littered

05:43the case, and my position is the court has held unanimously that the process was unfair

05:52to him, so a person cannot say, hey, the process is unfair to you, but we still think you're

05:59guilty.

06:00It doesn't work that way.

06:01The process is unfair, and anything that is derived from such an unfair process is null

06:06and void.

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