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Andre Hope, the only Black juror in Jussie Smollett's trial, questioned why the actor put back on a noose that he claimed attackers had looped around his neck.
Smollett, who was convicted Thursday of lying to Chicago police, testified that he had put the noose back on after the attack in Chicago in January of 2019 so responding police would see it.
"As an African American person, I'm not putting that noose back on at all," Hope, 63, said in an interview with WLS-TV.
Hope also said the evidence was overwhelmingly against Smollett. Two brothers testified that Smollett recruited them to stage the attack. Hope said Smollett's attorneys' arguments that the brothers had planned the attack did not make sense.
"When you just use your common sense as what's there, yeah it just, it didn't add up," Hope said.
Hope was not the only Black person who questioned Smollett's decision to keep the noose on to persuade police that he was a victim of a hate crime.
Former Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson, who was still in the position when Smollett claimed he was attacked, said something similar to Hope on Morning in America, according to NewsNation Now.
"When I initially saw the video of him in his apartment with the noose around his neck, I was concerned, because I don't think there are many Black people in America that would have a noose around their neck, and wouldn't immediately take it off," Johnson said.
Hope listened to prosecutors argue that Smollett staged the hoax because he was angry that the studio where he filmed the television program Empire did not take hate mail he received seriously. But after all the evidence was presented, after all the witnesses testified, Hope still has one big question.
"I still have not figured out a motive for why he did, why this had to even happen," Hope said. "He was a star."
Smollett faces up to three years in prison when he returns to court next year for sentencing. But experts have said it is far more likely that he will be placed on probation and ordered to perform community service.
That would be fine with Hope, who thinks Smollett does not deserve to go to prison. And, he said, he hopes the actor—who testified that he has lost his livelihood—would be given a chance to resume his career.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
