Pennsylvania Governor Supports Meek Mill’s Release From Prison

Pennsylvania governor Tom Wolf said in a statement Friday that he supports the release of rapper Meek Mill, who remains behind bars for a probation violation.

Wolf’s statement comes just over a week after Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner said that he would be “unopposed” to the rapper’s release from prison on bail. Meek Mill, currently serving a two-to-four year sentence, has been jailed since November.

“I support D.A. Larry Krasner’s position in the case of Robert Williams (Meek Mill),” Wolf tweeted Friday. “Our criminal justice system is in need of repair. That’s why my admin has made efforts to invest in programs that divert individuals from the system, improve public safety, and promote fairness.”

Wolf added in a follow-up tweet, “But more needs to be done. I am calling on the PA General Assembly to pass the Justice Reinvestment II reforms to the criminal justice system, which help address issues from arrest, trial, sentencing, incarceration, to post-release.”

In an exclusive interview with Rolling Stone, Meek Mill detailed the ways the criminal justice system has failed him as well as the alleged corruption of the judge overseeing his case, Common Pleas Court Judge Genece E. Brinkley.

“There’s brothers locked down that did nothing to be here but piss off people like Brinkley,” Meek Mill told Rolling Stone. One lawyer called her a “sadist,” while another attorney said, “Brinkley’s the judge you’d least want to be supervised by. Any failure to live by her rules will be punished.”

On the same day Rolling Stone published its Meek Mill interview, Krasner’s office filed a motion stating that there was a “strong likelihood” the rapper’s current conviction would be overturned.