Meek Mill's infamous 2008 conviction on gun and drug charges is being overturned and thrown out following a decade-plus legal battle.
A Pennsylvania appeals court made the ruling today, the Associated Press reports, with a three-judge panel unanimously granting the rapper a new trial due to new evidence of alleged police corruption. They said Mill would most likely be acquitted if the case is retried.
"We conclude the after-discovered evidence is of such a strong nature and character that a different verdict will likely result at a retrial," the opinion said.
The Pennsylvania Superior Court also overturned a trial judge's parole violation findings, which sent Mill back to prison in 2017 for five months, pulling the judge off the case.
Controversial Common Pleas Judge Genece Brinkley had been keeping the rapper on probation for 10 years over his arrest in 2007 at age 19. In the years since, the now 32-year-old has repeatedly been called back to the court over technical violations of his parole, most of which involved travel issues.
Over the years, Meek's lawyers have argued that Brinkley's treatment of the rapper was biased.
In the years since his conviction, Mill has become a symbol for criminal justice reform in the U.S.
A Pennsylvania appeals court made the ruling today, the Associated Press reports, with a three-judge panel unanimously granting the rapper a new trial due to new evidence of alleged police corruption. They said Mill would most likely be acquitted if the case is retried.
"We conclude the after-discovered evidence is of such a strong nature and character that a different verdict will likely result at a retrial," the opinion said.
The Pennsylvania Superior Court also overturned a trial judge's parole violation findings, which sent Mill back to prison in 2017 for five months, pulling the judge off the case.
Controversial Common Pleas Judge Genece Brinkley had been keeping the rapper on probation for 10 years over his arrest in 2007 at age 19. In the years since, the now 32-year-old has repeatedly been called back to the court over technical violations of his parole, most of which involved travel issues.
Over the years, Meek's lawyers have argued that Brinkley's treatment of the rapper was biased.
In the years since his conviction, Mill has become a symbol for criminal justice reform in the U.S.
