Photo Credit: Meek Mill/Instagram
Rapper Meek Mill, whose real name is Robert Williams plead Guilty today in a plea agreement to a misdemeanor gun charge that’s had him on probation for over a decade or most of his adult life for that matter. His 2007 charge was thrown out of court last month after already serving two years and a whole host of probation issues that sent him back to prison in 2017. The credibility of the officer involved in the case had been questioned by both sides which is the reason for the case being thrown out. Hearing about his legal woes over the years has lead many to just think of him as a criminal but he hasn’t technically committed a crime or done any community harm since 2007 but traveling and failing to report his schedule to his probation officer lead to a number of violations and once they begin to stack up, the number of years added to probation can easily add up with something as little as a fine being enough reason to send one back behind bars.
“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. Williams referred to the entire ordeal as “mentally and emotionally challenging.” In a brief written by prosecutors last year, they said “(The state) cannot call a witness whose credibility it mistrusts.” The officer had been found to steal money and lie about it. “The past 11 years have been mentally and emotionally challenging, but I’m ecstatic that justice prevailed,” Williams said last month after his conviction was overturned. “Unfortunately, millions of people are dealing with similar issues in our country and don’t have the resources to fight back like I did. We need to continue supporting them.”?
The case has taken so many turns from a 10 hour traffic stop to the judge’s clerk who tried to bribe him in a letter to the judge who asked him to leave his label and join one belonging to her friend, it’s amazing this has continued to be a legitimate case for so long. But these are the criminal justice issues that the general public needs to know about. And for the people who say just don’t get into trouble, that’s a good start but what happens to those who have been done wrong by the system? That’s something to think about. But at least he can go on with his life now.
