February 14, 2018
The Philadelphia judge who ordered star rapper Meek Mill to prison last fall has set a post-conviction hearing after Mill's lawyers filed an appeal to overturn his conviction on Wednesday.
The hearing is set for Monday, April 16.
Mill's lawyers reportedly urged Common Pleas Court Judge Genece Brinkley to overturn Mill's conviction and grant him a new trial, citing sworn testimony that disputes the account of Mill's arresting officer in the decade-old gun and drug case, Reggie Graham, Philly.com reported.
The motion reportedly states that former Philadelphia police officer Jerold Gibson accused Graham of lying under oath in an effort to put Mill behind bars. Graham falsely accused Mill of pointing a gun at police as police attempted to arrest him the then-19-year-old outside a suspected drug stash house in Southwest Philadelphia, according to Gibson's testimony.
Graham was also identified in an investigative report by Philly.com this week as one of two dozen officers named on a list of "tainted" police officers compiled by the District Attorney's Office last year.
Mill, a Philly native whose given name is Robert Rihmeek Williams, was convicted on gun and drug charges a decade ago. He was sentenced by Brinkley in November to two to four years in state prison for a probation violation connected with the case.
Wednesday's motion marked the latest attempt by Mill's attorneys to fight the sentence, which drew outrage from critics across the country, a rally at City Hall and an online petition signed by more than 400,000 people asking the Pennsylvania Board of Pardons to grant relief in Mill's sentence.
