You might have heard your favorite musician or athlete utter the phrase “Free Meek,” and now his mother is pleading her son’s case to Philadelphia’s top lawyer.
Tuesday, Kathy Williams held a press conference and called on the city’s District Attorney, Larry Krasner, to step in and help her son get out of confinement.
“I’m begging the DA Krasner,” a tearful Williams said during the 15 minute press event. “Can you please help me out?”
Born Robert Rihmeek Williams, Meek Mill was sentenced to two to four years in prison by a Philadelphia judge for violating the terms of his probation. Though Mill’s probation officer and the prosecutor recommended he not be sent to prison because he’d changed positively since he originally faced gun charges at 19, Judge Genece Brinkley remanded the 30-year-old rapper to custody anyway.
“I’ve been trying to help you since 2009,” Brinkley said last November, citing Mill’s failure to pass a drug test and a recent traffic violation. “You basically thumbed your nose at me.”
Since sending Meek Mill to prison, Brinkley has come under fire for allegedly acting inappropriately and urging the rapper to leave his current management in favor of her colleague, Charles “Charlie Mack” Alston, but she has denied the allegations and contended that she’s done nothing wrong.
Meek Mill’s plight has become a cause for many celebrities, including Jay-Z who penned an op-ed for the New York Times criticizing the justice system and calling for the rapper’s release.
“What’s happening to Meek Mill is just one example of how our criminal justice system entraps and harasses hundreds of thousands of black people every day,” Jay-Z wrote last November. “Probation is a trap and we must fight for Meek and everyone else unjustly sent to prison.”