Empire Star Compares Jussie Smollett’s Sentencing to Emmett Till

screenrant.com:

Empire star Taraji P. Henson compares the sentencing of Jussie Smollett to Emmett Till. Earlier this week, Smollett was handed a 150-day jail sentence and ordered to pay $120,000 in restitution after he was found guilty of lying to police about a hate crime staged against himself. The 39-year-old claimed in 2019 that he had been attacked by two men shouting racist and homophobic slurs; however, law enforcement later said that the assailants were known to Smollett and that the entire altercation had been a hoax in order to advance the actor’s career.

A number of celebrity friends, including Smollett’s on-screen mother Henson, have come out in support of the former Empire star in recent days. Among them is his sister Jurnee Smollett, who has maintained her brother’s innocence over Instagram and accuses the court system of racism in his sentencing. Other vocal supporters include Pose star Indya Moore and The Flash actor Kendrick Sampson, both of whom have decried Smollett’s sentencing under the hashtag #FreeJussie and state that he does not belong in prison.

Related: How Many Seasons Of Empire Are There (& Will It Get A Proper Finale?)

Now, in an Instagram post voicing her support, Henson has compared Smollett’s punishment to Emmett Till. Stating that she wouldn’t debate her former co-star’s innocence, Henson said, “We can all agree that the punishment does not fit the crime.” Citing the murder of 14-year-old Till in 1955 after he was falsely accused of offending a white woman, Henson wrote: “No one was hurt or killed during Jussie’s ordeal. He has already lost everything. EVERYTHING!” She continues to say that Smollett’s career has been ended by the proceedings and that, “as an artist who loves to create, that is prison.”