Meek Mill has been denied the chance at a new trial.
The ruling came from widely criticized Judge Genece Brinkley, who—perTMZ—announced Monday that the court would be denying his petition for PCRA relief as Meek allegedly "failed to meet his burden of proof." A new trial, however, had previously been recommended by the District Attorney's office.
In a statement to Complex after Brinkley's decision was announced, Meek's lawyer Joe Tacopina said the decision came as no surprise. "Despite the agreement of the District Attorney's office on the need for a new trial, and the granting of new trials to other identically situated defendants, Judge Brinkley made clear during the hearing on June 18th that she had already decided the matter," he said. "We continue to believe that this miscarriage of justice will be corrected upon further review, and that the public's confidence in the impartiality of the judicial system in Pennsylvania will be restored."
Tacopina noted that, in a footnote on Brinkley's opinion, Meek's supporters were accused of laughing. However, according to a transcript from last week's hearing, Brinkley herself was questioned by Meek's legal team about laughing. Meek's rep also noted that the court compared Meek's PCRA process to slavery, with a footnote in Brinkley's opinion stating that the court "was constrained to recognize that history is full of practices that existed for years without correction."
At this weekend's BET Awards in Los Angeles, Meek debuted his new Miguel-featuring song "Stay Woke" before dropping the studio version on Tidal and other streaming services. His case, the circumstances of which have been slammed by his lawyers and peers alike, gets multiple mentions, including in the final words of the first verse:
On them papers, one mistake and I'm gettin' caged in
Ya gotta feel me, feel like the system tryna kill me
Got arrested and the charges F1 for poppin' wheelies, stay woke
