Smollett’s lawyers argue his case should never have gone to trial because the actor had already entered into a binding agreement with prosecutors.

Former “Empire” actor Jussie Smollett’s attorneys took his case before the Illinois Supreme Court Tuesday. Smollett was convicted of staging and falsely reporting a hate crime against him in 2019. Smollett,

During the actor's trial, special prosecutors accused Smollett of staging the attack for publicity because he was unhappy with his salary for his role on the hit television show “Empire” and was attempting to launch a music career.

The Illinois Supreme Court heard arguments Tuesday in actor Jussie Smollett’s appeal to overturn his conviction on disorderly conduct charges for falsifying a hate crime.

The Illinois Supreme Court on Tuesday heard arguments in one of Chicago’s most closely followed low-level felony cases when attorneys for Jussie Smollett appeared before the state’s highest court in Springfield seeking to overturn his convictions nearly three years after he was convicted of staging a fake hate crime.

Smollett claimed he was the victim of a racist and homophobic attack near his Streeterville apartment in January 2019 after he walked several blocks for a Subway sandwich.

The Illinois Supreme Court heard Jussie Smollett's appeal of his disorderly conduct conviction, focusing on double jeopardy claims.

Smollett also argued his legal team was improperly denied access to the government’s interviews of the prosecution’s star witnesses – the two brothers he’d allegedly paid to perpetrate the attack – and that he was improperly ordered to pay for police overtime as restitution.