Andre Hope, the Black Juror on the Smollett Trial Questions Jussie

Andre Hope, the Only Black Juror on the Smollett Trial Questions Why Jussie Would Place Noose Back on his Neck When Police Responded

Last week, former Empire actor, Jussie Smollett was found guilty by a Chicago jury on five of six counts of lying to police on January 29, 2019. The lone Black juror on the court case questions why Smollett would place the noose back over his neck when police officers responded to his phone call. The juror stated, “I’m not putting that noose back on at all.”

According to ABC 7 Chicago, the only Black member of the jury that heard the case against Smollett, Andre Hope, has questioned the motive of Smollett in the tale he told police officers that fateful night nearly 2 years ago in January 2019. “I still have not figured out a motive for why he did, why this had to even happen,” Hope said. “He was a star.”

The 39-year-old actor claimed that he was attacked by two white racist men who allegedly shouted racist and homophobic slurs towards him at 2 AM as he was returning home from a trek to a Subway restaurant. He told police officers that the men threw some type of liquid on him and then placed a noose around his neck. He went home with the noose still hanging from his neck, took the noose off but placed it back around his neck when police officers arrived after he summoned them.

The 63-year-old man, a retired Cook County Forest Preserves employee who is married with two sons who are around Smollett’s age, says the story that the actor gave “didn’t add up.”

Hope feels it didn’t make any sense that Smollett kept the noose that was allegedly placed around his neck.

“As an African American person, I’m not putting that noose back on at all,” Hope said.

Although Hope said there were no arguments in the jury room during nine and a half hours of deliberation, he was disappointed to have been the only Black person on the panel.

“Because how can we say that this is a jury of your peers when there’s only one African American?” he explained. “And there were plenty there, so you could’ve gotten two, three four. African Americans can handle the truth, too. And we can give an impartial judgment on a case.”

Hope doesn’t feel Smollett should go to jail as he has lost enough and wants the actor to get a second chance in Hollywood.

Andre Hope, the Only Black Juror on the Smollett Trial Questions Why Jussie Would Place Noose Back on his Neck When Police Responded