It’s hard to believe it has been nearly five years since the Jussie Smollett hate hoax happened. It’s even harder to believe that despite overwhelming evidence of his guilt, Smollett has only spent 6 days in jail since then. But today an appeals court upheld his conviction so he may finally be finishing out the rest of his sentence.

An appeals court on Friday upheld the disorderly conduct convictions of actor Jussie Smollett, who was accused of staging a racist, homophobic attack against himself in 2019 and then lying about it to Chicago police.

Smollett, who appeared in the TV show “Empire,” challenged the role of a special prosecutor, jury selection, evidence and many other aspects of the case. But all were turned aside in a 2-1 opinion from the Illinois Appellate Court…

A jury convicted Smollett in 2021 on five felony counts of disorderly conduct, a charge that can be filed in Illinois when a person lies to police.

The sentencing back in March of 2022 was quite a scene. Smollett’s lawyers once again tried to claim he deserved a new trial but the judge denied their motion. Finally Judge Linn really uncorked what a lot of people had been feeling, straight to Smollett’s face. “They hypocrisy is just astounding,” Linn said. He went on to call Smollett, “profoundly arrogant and selfish and narcissistic.”

The judge sentencing hate crime HOAXER Jussie Smollett is absolutely FLAMING him right now. 🔥🔥🔥

Just GLORIOUS. pic.twitter.com/uAFvmTXS85

— Danny De Urbina (@dannydeurbina) March 11, 2022

The judge’s statement went on beyond the clip above. Judge Linn said Smollett, “committed hour upon hour of pure perjury.” Finally he sentenced him to 150 days in jail, 30 months of probation and restitution of $120,106 plus a $25,000 fine. Smollett responded to all of this with more bad acting, proclaiming himself “not-suicidal.”

After receiving his sentence, Jussie Smollett denies responsibility for the hate hoax and is not happy with the jail time he received. pic.twitter.com/xp0qFCuZFZ

— Mythinformed (@MythinformedMKE) March 11, 2022

Authorities apparently didn’t believe him and placed him on a suicide watch in a psych ward. His family and friends argued that even if you didn’t believe in his innocence you should still call for him to be set free. Why? Because he’s black. No really. Here’s what his sister wrote: “Black Americans are incarcerated in state prisons at nearly five times the rate of White Americans. Jussie is innocent. And…you don’t have to believe in his innocence to believe he should be free. #FreeJussie #StopLockingUpOurPeople.”

But as mentioned above, Jussie only spent 6 days in jail before he was released pending the outcome of his appeal. Now that the appeal is over, he will appeal the case once again to the state supreme court. Unless that court rules in his favor he’ll be heading back to jail.

Smollett reported to jail on March 10, 2022, and was released just six days later pending his appeal.

After Smollett’s team files for another appeal, the Illinois Supreme Court will decide whether to hear the case. If the actor’s conviction is not overturned, he will be required to serve out the rest of his 150-day jail sentence.

The prosecutor in the case said the appeals court got it right.

Special Prosecutor Dan. K. Webb shared a statement following the appellate court’s decision to uphold the conviction.

“As the appellate court noted, Mr. Smollett ‘challenge[d] virtually every aspect of’ the prosecution, and the appellate court correctly rejected each and every one of those challenges,” Webb said. “Today’s decision is a validation of Winston & Strawn’s tireless work on this matter and a resounding victory for justice. We are proud to have prevailed in a case that, we believe, can help restore the public’s confidence in the Cook County justice system.”

I don’t think there’s any realistic chance Smollett is going to get out of this. I’m honestly not sure why he’s fighting so hard to avoid a sentence that’s so short. Maybe he’s thinking about his future marketability but I do wonder how much he has paid his legal team to drag this out for the past several years. If he had just served his time this would have been over more than a year ago.