Jussie Smollett’s legal team is requesting the actor’s freedom. According to TMZ, the lawyers filed an emergency motion in which they requested his immediate release from jail, which they insist “poses a potentially deadly risk to his health from an epidemiological and medical perspective.”

Per the court documents, Smollett’s family is concerned with his well-being after receiving threats, which they believe can be translated to actual violence in the Cook County Jail. They submitted a sworn statement from a doctor who claimed the “Empire” star is at high risk of contracting COVID-19 in jail because of his compromised immune system and added that his mental health will negatively be affected if he’s held alone in protective custody. The team also cited the previous argument that he’s already being punished by the court of public opinion.

Ultimately, Smollett’s lawyers are hoping to get the singer freed while his appeal makes it through the court system. Taraji P. Henson is also pleading for his jail release.

Taking to Instagram on Sunday (March 13), the Hidden Figures actress expressed her disappointment with the actor’s sentencing, which requires him to serve five months behind bars.

“I am not here to debate you on his innocence but we can agree that the punishment does not fit the crime,” she wrote. “Emmett Till was brutally beat and ultimately murdered because of a lie and none of the people involved with his demise spent one day in jail, even after Carolyn Bryant admitted that her claims were false. No one was hurt or killed during Jussie’s ordeal. He has already lost everything, EVERYTHING!”

“To me as an artist not able to create that in itself is punishment enough,” she continued. “He can’t get a job. No one in Hollywood will hire him and again as an artist who loves to create, that is prison. My prayer is that he is freed and put on house arrest and probation because in this case that would seem fair.”