‘I FEEL GREAT’

Philadelphia Man Freed After 30 Years in Prison for Murder He Says He Didn’t Do

Rapper Meek Mill has been one of Eric Riddick’s staunchest advocates.

In the summer of 1992, Eric Riddick was sentenced to life behind bars for shooting and killing a childhood friend—a crime he insisted he didn’t commit. On Friday, he walked out of a Philadelphia prison a free man, NBC News reported. After rapper Meek Mill met Riddick while serving time at the same prison for a probation violation, the star took up Riddick’s cause. In 2019, three Georgetown University law students agreed to reinvestigate Riddick’s case, convincing Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner to release files the prosecution used to convict Riddick. Among them were reports indicating that Riddick was not the shooter, along with exculpatory evidence that hadn’t been disclosed in court. Krasner and his office’s Conviction Integrity Unit—which said it believes Riddick was an accomplice to the shooting but not the triggerman—hammered out a deal with Riddick, now 51, that would set him free without officially exonerating him. “I feel great, I feel great,” Riddick told NBC.