PHILADELPHIA _ The judge who sent Philadelphia rapper Meek Mill to prison last fall for violating the terms of his 2008 conviction on drug and gun charges says she needs more time to decide whether he should get a new trial.
Common Pleas Court Judge Genece Brinkley said at the end of a hearing Monday that she wanted to read more statements and court filings before ruling on the matter.
The hearing, at which Mill, 31, came face-to-face with Brinkley for the first time since she sent him to prison, followed a noontime rally in front of the city's Criminal Justice Center. Organizers of the "Stand with Meek Mill" rally were calling for the judge to grant the rapper a new trial, which his lawyers have repeatedly asked for and which the District Attorney's Office does not oppose.
Addressing the crowd of about 300 people at the rally, Mill said that he left a lot of innocent men in jail when he was granted bail in April. "I want y'all to know I will stand up for your family members for the rest of my music career," the rapper promised. Mill said that he'd spent Father's Day with his son, but that many other incarcerated men could not do similarly.
Earlier, Temple University professor and TV personality Marc Lamont Hill told the crowd that Brinkley, the police and the criminal justice system are corrupt. "You can't behave your way out of a corrupt system," Hill said, adding that Mill represents "everyone they want to put in a cage. ... We are not just fighting for Meek. We are fighting to end this corrupt system."
"We're not here for the accolades," activist, actor, and filmmaker Sixx King told the crowd. "We have brothers and sisters who are victims of this."
S. Archye Leacock, executive director of the Institute for the Development of African American Youth, said during the rally: "The first thing we can do if we want to be constructive is to clean up the acts of our young people so they don't get smeared and spend 20 years of their lives trying to figure out what to do."
Abigail Sutton, 34, held a "Justice 4 Meek" sign at the rally, but had not known about the event in advance. Sutton, who is white and lives in the Italian Market section of South Philadelphia, said she had stumbled upon the rally while answering a summons for jury duty. "I support him," she said. "My boyfriend supports him. The system is set up to marginalize African-Americans, and all minorities."
In a news release before the rally, organizers wrote that "Judge Brinkley refuses to treat Meek equally and, in the process, is wasting taxpayer dollars to pursue a case against the district attorney's recommendation. As a result, Meek continues to deal with the oppressive terms of his probation that keeps him and millions of others from living their lives, even after they've served their time."
On May 30, Common Pleas Court Judge Leon W. Tucker rejected the request from Mills' lawyers to have Brinkley, 61, removed from the case, ruling that he lacked jurisdiction to disqualify a fellow judge who sits on the same bench.
On June 12, the rapper lost another legal battle when the state Supreme Court deadlocked 3-3 on whether Brinkley should be removed from the case, resulting in denial of an emergency petition from his lawyers to oust her.
Although Brinkley has presided over the rapper's case since he was arrested for selling drugs while armed in 2007, things heated up Nov. 6 when Brinkley ruled that Mill had committed multiple violations of his probation terms stemming from his conviction on the drug and gun charges. She sentenced him to two to four years in state prison, touching off a national conversation on mass incarceration.
The Rev. Al Sharpton, comedian Kevin Hart and rap mogul Jay-Z were among a constellation of celebrities who frequently spoke in support of releasing Mill and replacing Brinkley. Billboards and bus wraps screamed support for the jailed rapper while his high-powered legal team pressed his case in a barrage of legal filings.
On April 16, the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office announced that due to questions about the credibility of Reginald Graham, the cop who arrested the rapper in 2007 and testified against him at trial a year later, Mill's conviction should be vacated and he should get a new trial.
Eight days later, the state's high court responded by granting the rapper extraordinary relief allowing him to be released from prison on bail.
