Ten years after being convicted of murder, dancehall artiste Vybz Kartel and his co-convicts have won their appeal against the conviction and sentence.
The grounds on which they have been overturned were due to jury misconduct, the Judicial Committee of the UK Privy Council ruled on Thursday in a highly anticipated judgement.
The case will be remitted to the Jamaican Court of Appeal to decide on whether there’ll be a retrial in the matter.
Kartel, whose real name is Adidja Palmer, was convicted on March 13, 2014 — along with fellow appellants Shawn Campbell, Kahira Jones and Andre St John — of the murder of Clive ‘Lizard’ Williams.
The Jamaican Court of Appeal dismissed their appeal against the convictions, and their cases were in the hands of the Privy Council.
Lord Reed, Lord Lloyd-Jones, Lord Briggs, Lord Burrows and Lady Simler heard their appeal during a two-day hearing in the UK in February.
They decided that it was unsafe to allow the tainted juror to remain on the jury which decided the men’s fate. The juror was later convicted of attempting to bribe a fellow juror.
More details to follow later.
