Jussie Smollett, 39, convicted for lying to police about being the victim of a hate crime, had a cringeworthy outburst in court yesterday, exclaiming, "I am not suicidal. I am not suicidal. If anything happens to me in there, you should know I did not do that."

Smollett, who was just sentenced to 150 days in prison and a $25,000 fine, seems to imply that -- should he happen to commit suicide in prison -- that it would have to be the result of him having been murdered the way the popular conspiracy theory that Jeffrey Epstein's suicide was staged.

Smollett seems to see himself at the center of something huge -- important enough that some unspecified group of powerful individuals would want to have him killed. The once-successful actor was convicted on five counts of lying to police and fabricating a needlessly complex tale of being assaulted by supporters of then-President Trump -- all during a time when protests about police violence were rocking the nation.

Whether he did it simply for the attention it garnered him or for some other self-destructive instinct, Smollett is once again showing an incredible lack of self-awareness as he proclaims, in the most cringeworthy way possible, that he is important and that people still care about Jussie Smollett. And it's, frankly, pathetic.

After his outburst, Judge James Linn told Smollett, ""You turned your life upside down. You destroyed your life as you know it. There is nothing I can do to you today that will come close to the damage you've done to your own life."