'We thought we were doing him a favor': Smollett juror speaks on verdict

An unnamed juror in the Jussie Smollett hate hoax case told media on Friday that "we all thought we were doing Jussie a favor" by finding him guilty on only five of the six counts brought before them.

"It wasn’t an easy decision. 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?"

"I just hope that [Smollett and his attorneys] know that we went in there with an open mind. I listened to both sides," she continued, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.

"We were told it was an aggravated battery because he said they were wearing a mask. in all of [Smollett’s] accounts of what happened, he mentioned a mask," mentioned the juror, also noting that Smollett probably would have been found guilty on the sixth count if the charge had been simple battery instead of aggravated battery.

The sixth count in question had to do with Smollett's alleged lying to police officers in Feb. 14 during an interview. The other five counts have to do with Smollett's actions in the hours following the "attack" on him.

The anonymous juror then went on to describe how the nine-hour deliberation of the jury went. She wanted the public to know that, in her opinion, there was little real debate among the jurors; it was more a question of analysis of the facts before them.

None of them had any real doubt that Smollett was guilty of his crimes, according to the juror.