After spending five months in prison, hip-hop star Meek Mill has been granted his freedom.
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court ordered Mill’s immediate release on Tuesday.
The 30-year-old rapper, whose real name is Robert Williams, tweeted thanking his family and public advocates — who included Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney and New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft — and said he looks forward to returning to his music career, according to CBS News.
Michael Rubin, co-owner of the Philadelphia 76ers basketball team and the New Jersey Devils hockey team, reportedly picked Mill up from prison.
Rubin has been one of Mill’s many supporters and visited him several times in jail.
Comedian Kevin Hart arrived early Tuesday just before Mill’s release.
Mill wrote that the past five months in jail “have been a nightmare” and that he’d been working with his legal team to “overturn this unwarranted conviction.”
“I’d like to thank God, my family, and all my public advocates for their love, support and encouragement during this difficult time,” he said in a statement.
“The prayers, visits, calls, letters and rallies have helped me stay positive,” he added.
Mill even thanked the Philadelphia district attorney’s office.
“I’m grateful for your commitment to justice. I understand that many people of color across the country don’t have that luxury and I plan to use my platform to shine a light on those issues,” Mill said, further emphasizing that he anticipated “reuniting with my family and resuming my music career,” he said.
Mill’s attorney, Joe Tacopina, thanked the high court.
“Meek was unjustly convicted and should not have spent a single day in jail,” Tacopina said.
Mill’s sentencing occurred in November and he faced two to four years in prison for violating probation on a nearly decade-old gun and drug case.
Judge Genece Brinkley, who sentenced Mill for the probation violation, said he had wasted several chances to clean up his act after a 2009 gun and drug case.
But the sentence which Brinkley handed down stood in direct opposite to the recommendation of the prosecutor who said Mill had matured since his original crime. Brinkley, further supporting his decision, said the prosecutor did not know the case as well as she did and that Mill just “does what he wants.”
Protestors demonstrated often on behalf of Mill, and his supporters have included athletes like Julius Erving, LeBron James, and Joel Embiid and rap stars such as Jay Z and even Mill’s former flame Nikki Minaj.
