Jamaican dancehall vocalist Vybz Kartel has had his conviction quashed due to bribery attempts by one of the original jurors and been freed from prison after 13 years.
The artist, real name Adidja Palmer, was arrested in 2011 along with three other men for the murder of their associate Clive “Lizard” Williams, whose body has never been found. In 2014, Palmer was sentenced to 35 years in prison, later reduced on appeal to 32 and a half.
Palmer maintained his innocence and further appeals were launched against his conviction. In March, the case was heard in the UK’s privy council, used as Jamaica’s final court of appeal. Lord Lloyd-Jones quashed the original conviction, because a juror offered bribes to other jurors to pass down a not guilty verdict, but was allowed to continue on the jury. Lloyd-Jones said the presence of the juror was “fatal to the safety of the convictions”.
The decision was passed back to the court of appeal in Jamaica, which would determine whether a new trial would be held. “We conclude that the interests of justice do not require a new trial,” Justice Marva McDonald-Bishop said, leading to Palmer being freed from prison on Wednesday evening, met by a crowd of supporters in Kingston. He later posted images and video to social media celebrating his release.
"Mi a tell di yute dem stay out of f$@!%&!" - Words of warning from entertainer Vybz Kartel as he took his first steps into freedom in Kingston on Wednesday afternoon. The DJ, who was in custody for 13 years, was freed of a murder charge earlier today. #GLNRToday pic.twitter.com/qdVchRBCGC
— Jamaica Gleaner (@JamaicaGleaner) July 31, 2024
Palmer, 48, is one of the most successful and critically acclaimed dancehall musicians in Jamaica’s history. He released his debut album Up 2 Di Time in 2003, crossed over into the US R&B chart in 2009 with the sexually explicit Spice duet Romping Shop, and has appeared on tracks with the likes of Rihanna, Missy Elliott and Busta Rhymes. His 2009 track with Major Lazer, Pon De Floor, became an international hit and was heavily sampled for Beyoncé’s Run the World (Girls).
In considering a retrial, McDonald-Bishop said that the original case against Palmer and his co-defendants concerned a “deliberate attack and barefaced defiance of law and order … the nature, the seriousness, and prevalence of the alleged offence in this case are powerful factors that weighed in favour of a retrial”. But she added that “several equally powerful factors, which when combined, militate against ordering a new trial”, including the unavailability of witnesses and the amount of time elapsed since the alleged offence.
Palmer is reportedly in poor health, which was another factor in determining that a new trial was not merited.
Isat Buchanan, lawyer for Palmer and his co-defendents, told the Jamaica Gleaner: “This is their independence, their emancipation … We have always said this many times during interviews – God and time. We do the work while God grounded us in the faith and so were confident of this outcome.”
Two of the three other men, Shawn “Shawn Storm” Campbell and Andre St John, were freed, but the other, Kahira Jones, remains in custody because of a separate sentence for an incident in 2009.
