PHILADELPHIA (AP) - The Latest on rapper Meek Mill’s release from prison while he appeals drug and gun convictions (all times local):
6:25 p.m.
Rapper Meek Mill says he believes a lot of important people are depending on him now that he’s out of prison.
Mill is telling Lester Holt of NBC Nightly News in an interview being broadcast Wednesday those are the people “going through the same thing I’m going through.”
Mill’s lawyers spent months battling to get Mill freed on bail after he was sentenced to prison for probation violations.
He was released Tuesday after Pennsylvania’s highest court ordered the sentencing judge to free him while he appeals decade-old gun and drug convictions likely to get thrown out.
Mill’s lawyers say he never should have been jailed. Criminal justice reform advocates say there are many others like him wrongly behind bars.
The interview will run on both the Nightly News and Dateline NBC.
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12:15 a.m.
Philadelphia-born rapper Meek Mill has attended an NBA playoff game in his first public appearance since being released from prison while he appeals decade-old gun and drug convictions.
Following a five-month campaign by his supporters to get him out, the state Supreme Court on Tuesday directed a Philadelphia judge who had jailed him to immediately issue an order releasing him on unsecured bail.
Mill, whose real name is Robert Rihmeek Williams, was sentenced in November to two to four years behind bars for probation violations.
He was taken from the prison in Chester by helicopter to nearby Philadelphia, where he rang the ceremonial bell at the start of Game 5 of the Philadelphia 76ers-Miami Heat playoff series.
The rapper wore a Joel Embiid jersey and sat courtside during the game.
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