The woman added that there was not a consensus when jurors went into deliberations because they didn’t believe that the Osundairo brothers were completely forthcoming with the entire account of events. However, they were more believable than Smollett.
“It was not evenly split, but there were some doubters,” the juror told the Chicago Sun-Times. She explained that the decision took nine hours because some of the doubters needed to review the evidence.
On top of it all, there was the emotional aspect of the trial.
“It wasn’t an easy decision,” the juror told the newspaper. “You’ve got the mother sitting there. You feel bad. We didn’t know what the penalty would be. Are we sending this guy to jail?”
Smollett was not convicted on the sixth count because of the confusion over the wording of jury instructions, not because they believed Smollett was innocent.
Otherwise, “I believe we probably would have found him guilty” on all counts.
“We all thought we were doing Jussie a favor” by deciding not to find him guilty on the last count.
