PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Philadelphia rapper Meek Mill has received a pardon from Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf for his 2008 gun possession conviction.
Mill shared a photo of the pardon on his Instagram account, saying he will continue to fight for his community.
Mill was first sentenced in 2008 after he was arrested with a gun at the age of 18.
In 2017, he was sentenced to two to four years after he was charged with reckless driving in New York City, which violated probation for his 9-year-old conviction.
Activists and musicians came out against the sentence, saying it was too harsh, but the judge in his case said he was disrespecting the court. In 2018, he was granted early release and has since been working to reform the criminal justice system.
Wolf signed his final 369 pardons this week, for a total of 2,540 since he took office in 2015. His term ends on Tuesday.
According to Wolf’s administration, that’s more than double the number of pardons granted by any Pennsylvania governor before him. He surpasses former Gov. Ed Rendell’s record of 1,122 granted pardons.
About a quarter of the pardons were for people with non-violent marijuana offenses. Another 232 were part of the PA Marijuana Pardon Project.
“I have taken this process very seriously — reviewing and giving careful thought to each and every one of these 2,540 pardons and the lives they will impact,” Wolf said in a statement. “Every single one of the Pennsylvanians who made it through the process truly deserves their second chance, and it’s been my honor to grant it.”
A pardon grants total forgiveness of the related criminal conviction and allows for expungement.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.