EGN NEWS DESK
The homicide conviction of the dancehall artist Vybz Kartel and three co-defendants was overturned on Thursday by the best court docket of attraction for Jamaica and different Commonwealth international locations.
Vybz Kartel, born Adidja Palmer, had beforehand been convicted and given a life sentence for the 2011 homicide of Clive Williams, referred to as Lizard. The sentence was later diminished to 32 and a half years.
On Thursday, the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in London overturned the conviction due to allegations of jury misconduct within the 2014 trial. A juror, described in court docket paperwork as “Juror X,” was allowed to stay seated after a declare that the individual had tried to bribe different members of the jury. Jurors in the end convicted Mr. Palmer, Shawn Campbell, Kahira Jones and André St. John of homicide.
“Allowing Juror X to stay on the jury is deadly to the security of the convictions which adopted,” the court docket dominated. “It was an infringement of the appellants’ basic proper to a good listening to underneath the Jamaican Constitution.”
Another appeals court docket will now determine whether or not Mr. Palmer ought to be retried. Lawyers for Mr. Palmer and for the prosecution didn’t instantly reply to requests for remark.
After a string of profitable singles in his native Jamaica, Mr. Palmer reached U.S. charts in 2009 with “Romping Shop,” which additionally featured Spice, and collaborated with Rihanna, Jay-Z and different artists. He additionally starred within the actuality TV present “Teacha’s Pet,” which aired on Jamaican TV in 2011. While imprisoned, Mr. Palmer continued to launch new songs, together with the 2016 single “Fever,” which went gold.
During the trial, prosecutors alleged that Mr. Williams and one other man had been given two unlicensed firearms belonging to Mr. Palmer. When the pair didn’t return the weapons on time, they have been summoned to Mr. Palmer’s home, the place Mr. Williams was killed, in keeping with prosecutors, who relied on proof from Mr. Palmer’s cellphone to advance their case. Mr. Williams’s physique was by no means discovered.
All 4 defendants had pleaded not responsible.
