The good news keeps coming in for Meek Mill. The 32-year-old Philadelphian rapper not only started a new business venture with Jay-Z today, he’s also received word that the 2008 conviction that has haunted him for over a decade has been thrown out by a Pennsylvania appeals court and he has been granted a new trial without judge Genece Brinkley or the officer who originally testified against him. The Associated Press reports that three judges unanimously decided to grant Meek a new trial today and overturned his original conviction.
Meek Mill was convicted of gun and drug charges in 2008 on the sole testimony of an unreliable witness, an officer who said Meek pointed a gun at him during an arrest. As it happens, that officer’s name appeared on a secret “do not call” list kept by the Pennsylvania prosecutor’s office — a list of officers who were known to have engaged in shady, corrupt dealings and whose testimonies would thus be compromised. Meek was granted probation, but maintains that Judge Brinkley has had a grudge against him all the while, leading up to a four-year sentence in 2017 for probation violation after Meek was taped riding a motorbike with some kids in New York City.
The terms of his probation included staying out of trouble with the law, but it seemed to many that the law pursued and pestered him to find excuses to send him back to prison. Only after the efforts of a group of prominent public figures was Meek able to secure his release last year. Ever since, he’s worked tirelessly on the cause of criminal justice reform, to ensure that others could avoid his fate. Now, he has the opportunity to get a second lease on life, as the prosecutor now has the option of dismissing the charges against him entirely.
Meek Mill is a Warner Music artist. .
