Fans awaiting the outcome of Vybz Kartel’s and three other co-accused convicted of murder 10 years ago got their answer on Thursday, March 14, 2024. The UK Privy Council appeals court delivered its highly anticipated judgment and overturned the murder conviction and 32-year prison sentence, ruling the judge made a “fatal” error in allowing the jury to proceed to a verdict.
Kartel was seeking to have life sentences overturned on the basis that the trial in the Kingston Home Circuit Court was allegedly compromised. Among the claims, crucial cell phone evidence was improperly obtained, and allegations a juror was seeking to bribe others by offering J$500,000 for a particular outcome.
Here’s a summary of events: A decade ago, Vybz Kartel, fellow entertainer Shawn ‘Shawn Storm’ Campbell, Kahira Jones and Andre St. John were given life sentences for their role in the murder of an associate, Clive’ Lizard’ Williams, whose body was never found.
Three years later, the four men appealed their convictions in the Court of Appeal, however, it was dismissed, and their sentences were upheld.
They were later granted leave to present their appeal before the Privy Council, the highest tier of the Jamaican court system.
On February 14th and 15th, the appellants presented arguments on whether trial judge Lennox Campbell should have allowed telecommunication evidence obtained in a manner that allegedly breached Palmer’s constitutional rights to privacy into the trial. On other grounds cited for appeal was the judge’s decision to not discharge the jury or the accused juror following allegations of bribery attempts. The appellants also argued that there was an apparent rush placed on the jury to return a verdict, even after the forewoman had told the judge earlier in the day that the jury could not reach a unanimous decision. According to attorney-at-law Christopher Townsend, the decisions made by Judge Campbell in the case went against the core mandate of every judge, which is to hold a fair trial.
“Whenever a trial is in jeopardy of fairness being compromised, there is always a good argument for counsel to say that the trial is unfair because it is every judge’s mandate to hold a fair trial. And so if there is a complaint— and a strong complaint— that the trial is unfair, then you can’t get a more respectable argument than those [presented] and, further, if we are saying that the man’s rights were breached constitutionally to obtain a conviction, then you can’t be allowed to break the law either to get what you want,” Townsend said.
For these reasons and the fact that the Privy Council took an interest in the case in the first place, Townsend believed that the decision could only come from one of two options: acquittal or retrial. The appeals court stated Kartel could face a retrial based on the decision of the Jamaican courts.
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Vybz Kartel’s legal battle takes a dramatic turn in his favor
