Vybz Kartel, known by his real name Adidja Palmer, received a legal victory on Thursday as a London court overturned his conviction for the murder of his associate more than a decade ago.
The court ruled that attempts to bribe the trial jury rendered the conviction unsafe.
Kartel, 48, stands as one of Jamaica’s most renowned musical figures, having collaborated with global stars such as Jay-Z and Rihanna.
However, his career took a dramatic turn in 2011 when he was incarcerated in Jamaica over the disappearance of his associate, Clive “Lizard” Williams, whose body remains unrecovered.
Following a lengthy 64-day trial in Kingston, Kartel and three others were convicted in 2014. Kartel received a life sentence with a minimum of 35 years, later reduced to 32-and-a-half years on appeal.
In their final appeal last month, Kartel and his co-defendants presented their case before the Privy Council in London, the ultimate appellate court for Jamaica and several other Commonwealth nations.
Their legal team argued that the trial judge mishandled allegations that a juror offered bribes totaling 500,000 Jamaican dollars (approximately $3,200) to fellow jurors to secure not guilty verdicts.
On Thursday, the Privy Council granted the defendants’ appeals, with Judge David Lloyd-Jones criticizing the trial judge’s decision to allow the accused juror to remain on the panel as “fatal to the safety of the convictions.”
The case has been remitted to the Court of Appeal in Jamaica to determine whether Kartel and his co-defendants should face a retrial.
