Meek Mill, the Philadelphia rapper jailed on a weapons-and-drugs conviction, may have been unjustly convicted thanks to a cop who lied at his 2008 trial, District Attorney Larry Krasner said Wednesday in announcing that he will not oppose Mill’s immediate release on bail pending appeal of his case. USA Today calls it “a shocking development” in a contentious case that has implications for scores of other convictions in Philadelphia involving police officers whose names appear on a list of officers whose credibility has been questioned by fellow officers and by local prosecutors.
Mill has been in jail or under house arrest for more than two years, most recently for probation violations. Since last fall, he and his lawyers have been trying and failing to persuade a judge to release him on bail while his case is appealed. Now evidence has emerged that puts his conviction — and that of scores of others — in jeopardy. “In the event (Mill’s) conviction is reversed (in whole or in part) as a result of post-conviction proceedings, the risk of an unjust or disproportionate sentence having been served exists,” Krasner said. “That risk increases as long as (Mill) remains in custody.” Because hundreds of other convictions have been reversed based on information provided by a whistleblowing cop, “there is a strong showing of likelihood of (Mill’s) conviction being reversed (in whole or in part),” Krasner said. The decision on whether to release Mill now or soon still rests with the judge in his case. Mill’s mother, his friends and fans, leading sports figures and community leaders in Philadelphia have sharply criticized Judge Genece Brinkley, who sentenced Mill to two to four years in prison for violating probation on a decade-old guns-and-drugs case. An appeals court in December denied a request to free the 30-year-old musician on bail.