Jussie Smollett, an American actor, is slated to be sentenced in a Chicago court on Thursday for fraudulently reporting to police that he was the victim of a hate crime, though his lawyers will first try to get the guilty judgement overturned.

Smollett, 39, was convicted of five counts of felony disorderly conduct in December for filing false reports about an anti-gay and anti-Black hate crime.

The actor, who is Black and gay, told Chicago police that two unknown individuals attacked him on a cold night in January 2019, yelling racist and homophobic comments at him, pouring bleach on him, and tying a noose around his neck.

Celebrities and politicians raced to publicly defend him, and the matter was investigated by Chicago police as a probable hate crime.

They quickly discovered, however, that the actor staged the event and hired two brothers he knew from the Fox programme “Empire” to arrange it for attention.

During the trial, Smollett maintained his innocence under oath, but the jury found him guilty on five of the six felony charges after nine hours of deliberation.

In Illinois, a charge of disorderly conduct for filing a false criminal report is a class 4 felony punishable by up to three years in prison and a $25,000 fine.

Judge James Linn of Cook County has the authority to impose a concurrent or consecutive sentence for each of the five crimes.

He has the authority to sentence Smollett to probation, conditional discharge, community service, restitution, or a combination of these punishments. Conditional discharge refers to a release with conditions but no probationary period.

Attorneys are likely to argue before Judge Linn about the actor’s plea to have the decision overturned or for a new trial at the hearing on Thursday afternoon.

Last month, Smollett’s lawyer, Mark Lewis, presented a dozen arguments in support of his client, including the defence’s claim that it was unfairly barred from questioning possible jurors during the jury selection process.

Linn decided at the moment that only he, not the defence or prosecution, would be allowed to ask questions.

The sentence will be carried out if Linn denies Smollett’s motion or defers a decision. Smollett’s attorneys have reportedly stated that they will appeal the verdict.

The sentencing is the most recent development in a complicated case involving racism, homophobia, celebrity, policing, and fraud.

Smollett was indicted on 16 counts of felony disorderly conduct in March 2019 after police found his reports were fake.

However, Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx’s office dismissed all charges weeks later, claiming that he completed community service, would not be reimbursed for his $10,000 bond, posed no threat to the community, and had no prior offences.

That ruling sparked a debate about whether Jussie Smollett had received preferential treatment, prompting a judge to appoint Dan Webb as a special prosecutor to investigate it in August 2019. Smollett was indicted on six felony charges by a second grand jury in February 2020.

Jussie Smollett’s acting career was effectively ruined as a result of the event. His character was written out of “Empire,” which ended in 2020, and he has yet to appear in another TV or cinema acting role, despite directing and producing a feature.

The brothers, Abimbola and Olabinjo Osundairo, were among seven witnesses for the prosecution in court late last year.

They said that Smollett told them to manufacture the attack and paid them to do it in order to gain sympathy from the media.

“Who was in charge of this thing?” special prosecutor Dan Webb asked.

“Jussie was,” Abimbola Osundairo told the jury.

Smollett testified in his own defence, denying any such scheme and claiming that he simply paid the brothers for training and dietary guidance.

He questioned their motives and claimed to have had an intimate relationship with one of the brothers, which the brother denied.

The main question before Smollett’s sentencing is whether he would be punished to prison despite the fact that he has no prior convictions.

Smollett’s lack of criminal background, according to a former Cook County prosecutor, makes a prison sentence unlikely.

Another reason, according to the ex-prosecutor Darren O’Brien, is that Linn did not withdraw Smollett’s bond following his conviction.

“If the person is going into custody ultimately, usually they revoke the bond,” said O’Brien, who has written guides to sentencing in Illinois published by the state’s bar association. “That’s another indication that I doubt he’s going to jail.”

Prior to the hearing, special prosecutor Daniel Webb did not file a recommendation for prison time, but said following Smollett’s conviction in December that the actor was “not repentant at all” when he spoke during the trial.

Joey Jackson, a CNN legal expert and criminal defence attorney, previously told CNN that the judge might give Smollett probation, but that when he testified in court, Smollett “exposed himself to jail time.”

“When you testify in a case, the judge now gets a sense of what you said,” Jackson said. “What Jussie Smollett said was resoundingly rejected by that jury. The jury did not buy what he was selling. That’s not lost upon a judge. You came into the courtroom and fabricated.”

Furthermore, according to court filings, the city of Chicago filed a lawsuit against Smollett in April 2019 after the actor refused to pay the city $130,106.15 for the police investigation. In November 2020, Jussie Smollett filed a countersuit.

In the city’s lawsuit, the Chicago Department of Law stated that over two dozen cops and detectives spent weeks working on Smollett’s case in 2019, resulting in 1,836 overtime hours.

Following Smollett’s December conviction, the city stated that it intended to pursue its case.

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