Rapper Meek Mill pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor gun charge in Philadelphia court on Tuesday and won’t serve additional time in prison — bringing an end to a case that’s kept him on probation for most of his adult life and turned him into a high-profile activist for criminal justice reform. The negotiated plea comes a month after an appeals court threw out his 2008 conviction.
The 32-year-old rapper, born Robert Rihmeek Williams, had already served about two years in prison in the case, which began with an arrest when he was 19. The judge decided he won’t have to spend any additional time behind bars or on probation.
“I know this has been a long road for you and hopefully this will be the end of it,” Judge Leon Tucker told the rapper.
The negotiated plea came after both sides questioned the credibility of the arresting officer. The defense also accused the trial judge of bias for sending the entertainer back to prison over minor probation violations.
Williams has called the 12-year ordeal “mentally and emotionally challenging,” but said millions of people face the same issues. He has become an activist for criminal justice reform since he was sent back to prison in 2017 for technical violations he blamed on his erratic travel schedule as his career soared. He spent five months locked up before an appeals court granted him bail.
After the hearing, the rapper spoke briefly to cheering supporters who had gathered for a rally outside the courthouse.
“I just wanted to come up here myself and thank all the supporters because I know y’all probably got family members in jail or people going through the same thing as me and I will continue to do what I do with the reform movement and help the people who helped me,” Williams said.
Last month, a Pennsylvania appeals court overturned the conviction, saying new evidence undermined the credibility of the officer who testified against the rapper at his trial and made it likely he would be acquitted if the case were retried.
District Attorney Larry Krasner’s office had supported Williams’ appeal and said it could not call the former officer to testify after an internal probe found he’d stolen money on duty and lied about it.
“(The state) cannot call a witness whose credibility it mistrusts,” prosecutors wrote in a legal brief this year.
The officer, Reginald Graham, has denied the allegations.
Speaking at a press conference Tuesday, Krasner said the plea deal is not an exoneration “of someone who was completely innocent,” but he said the resolution is a fair one to a case he said involved excessive punishment, unfair procedures and “questionable integrity.”
“I frankly can’t think of the last case I saw where there was a conviction of this nature, and yet the supervision went on in excess of 10 years,” Krasner said.
He said Williams has accepted responsibility for his criminal conduct and noted “profound changes in Mr. Williams since the time of his original conviction.”
Meek Mill thanks his supporters moments after walking out of court. pic.twitter.com/f0SgEtDRjV
— Crystal Cranmore (@CrystalCranmore) August 27, 2019
Williams has spent a total of about two years in prison over the case, including an initial term of about a year and several later stints over travel violations and painkiller use.