The legal fraternity and fans will know the fate of Dancehall star Vybz Kartel this week when the Court of Appeal delivers the crucial decision on whether the entertainer and his co-accused will face a retrial for the murder of Clive ‘Lizard’ Williams.
Kartel, whose given name is Adidja Palmer, along with Shawn ‘Shawn Storm’ Campbell, Kahira Jones, and Andre St John, were charged with the murder of Clive Williams.
The accused men consistently denied any role in Williams’ death but were found guilty in 2014.
The Court of Appeal upheld these convictions in 2020.
However, in March 2024, the London-based Privy Council, which serves as Jamaica’s highest court, overturned the convictions due to issues of juror misconduct.
Nevertheless, despite this decision, the Privy Council did not release the men but instead directed the case back to the Court of Appeal to determine whether or not the quartet ought to be retried.
Last month, a report suggested that the Jamaican government’s final cost in opposing the appeal in the UK could reach over J$150 million.
In mid-June, former Prime Minister PJ Patterson, in a reasoning session at the University of the West Indies Faculty of Law, had said that Kartel’s case ought not to have gone to the Privy Council in the first place as there was judicial precedent from a similar case in which the Jamaican Court of Appeal had decided that “once there is any sign of contamination, you must dismiss the entire jury.”
