Meek Mill, the platinum-selling Philadelphia rapper, was granted a new trial and a new judge by a Pennsylvania appeals court on Wednesday, after fighting a 2008 drug and gun conviction that his lawyers have argued should be overturned.

The rapper, born Robert Rihmeek Williams, was initially found guilty more than a decade ago of possessing drugs and a firearm, with a detective testifying at trial that Williams, then 19, pointed a gun at him during a 2007 arrest. Williams served eight months in prison before being placed on probation for 10 years.

In 2017, following two arrests that did not lead to convictions, a Philadelphia judge, Genece Brinkley, sentenced Williams to up to four years in prison for violating his parole, leading to an outcry by celebrities and advocates of criminal justice reform. The rapper served five months before he was granted bail.

Since then, as the rapper has become a cause célèbre and outspoken reformer himself, Williams’s legal team has argued that Judge Brinkley had become overly involved in the case and was no longer impartial. In calling for a new trial, they also pointed to the fact that the only witness to testify against Williams at trial was a former Philadelphia police officer, Reginald Graham, who has since resigned from the department after an internal investigation found him guilty of theft and lying.