Meek Mill's Conviction Overturned on Appeal As Panel of Judges Grants Him New Trial
An appeals court in Pennsylvania has overturned the 2008 drug conviction of Meek Mill, clearing the 32-year-old Philadelphia rapper’s name while granting him a new trial.
PEOPLE confirms the Pennsylvania Superior Court vacated Mill’s conviction. The Court also overturned the trial judge’s finding in 2017 that Mill had violated the terms of his parole, landing the rapper — born Robert Rihmeek Williams — back in prison for five months.
The three-judge panel also assigned the case to a new judge.
“I’d like to thank the Pennsylvania Superior Court for overturning my conviction and granting me a new trial,” the rapper wrote on Twitter. “The past 11 years have been mentally and emotionally challenging, but I’m glad that justice prevailed and my clean record has been restored.”
In their decision, the judge’s determined that, with new evidence of possible police corruption, Mill would be able to prove his innocence.
“We conclude the after-discovered evidence is of such a strong nature and character that a different verdict will likely result at a retrial,” reads the opinion, obtained by PEOPLE.
New evidence has emerged indicating the officers involved in the case provided false statements.
A date for Meek Mill’s retrial has not been set yet.
According to this week’s decision, Common Pleas Judge Genece Brinkley placed Mill on probation for 10 years over his arrest in 2007, when he was 19.
• Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Click here to get breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases in the True Crime Newsletter.
Mill has become an advocate for reforming the criminal justice system, following his repeated visits to the courthouse for technical violations of his probation — and his re-incarceration in 2017.
The prosecution could not be reached for comment.
