Vybz Kartel, real name Adidja Palmer, has been freed after being incarcerated for 13 years.
Dancehall artist Vybz Kartel and his co-accused Shawn ‘Shawn Storm’ Campbell and Andre St. John were unanimously freed on Wednesday afternoon by the Court of Appeal of Jamaica after their lawyers successfully argued that a retrial would be in breach of their constitutional rights.
According to the Jamaica Observer, the judgment handed down by newly installed President Justice Marva McDonald Bishop and Justices Paulette Williams and David Fraser was unanimous, as they agreed that the “interest of justice do not require a new trial to be ordered.” The full judgment setting out reasons for freeing the men will be shared with the public at a later time.
The prosecution had argued valiantly that Kartel and his co-accused should be retried for the 2011 murder of Clive “Lizard” Williams despite struggling to justify a possible lengthy wait since several matters referred for retrial have not been set as yet.
Ahead of the ruling, and in anticipation of the crowd of fans who showed up for the artist who has been imprisoned for almost 14 years, police set up mechanisms for crowd control.
Kartel and his co-accused have yet to react to the judgment, but the good news comes months after the Privy Council ruled that the matter should be referred to the Court of Appeal for a decision on a retrial after finding that the jury was biased during the trial in 2014.
Attorneys for Kartel had argued that the jury was tainted after one of the jurors was accused of attempting to bribe the foreman and others. The JCPC also ruled that the judge’s warnings to the jury ahead of deliberation were insufficient to address the bias that jurors could somehow link the bribery attempts to Kartel and his co-accused.
The successful appeal of the murder charge effectively usurps the life imprisonment sentence on Kartel, Campbell, Andre St. John, and Kahira Jones.
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