Members of Smollett’s legal team spent the majority of Friday at Illinois’ First District Appellate Court downtown Chicago where they filed an emergency injunction seeking Smollett’s release. An appellate court judge ruled prosecutors have five days to respond to the emergency motion.
Also Friday, as anticipated, the actor’s defense attorneys filed a notice of appeal in Cook County Criminal Court.
One day earlier, a judge sentenced Smollett to 150 days in Cook County Jail following his conviction for lying to police about being the victim of a hoax hate crime in 2019. Smollett was also sentenced to 30 months of felony probation, ordered to pay more than $120,000 in restitution to the city of Chicago and was fined $25,000.
He began his sentence immediately after learning his fate Thursday.
