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Vybz Kartel has been freed from prison after an appeals court declined to retry him for a 2014 murder conviction that was overturned earlier this year.
The dancehall artist, 48, was convicted of killing of Clive “Lizard” Williams over a decade ago and has remained in prison ever since.
Prosecutors alleged that Williams had been killed by Kartel and three other co-defendants over a dispute surrounding guns. His body has never been found.
However, in March, a UK-based Privy Council overturned the conviction after finding evidence of juror misconduct – including attempts to bribe – in Kartel’s initial trial. It left the decision on whether or not to hold a retrial to the Court of Appeal in Jamaica.
The Court then ruled on Wednesday (31 July) that “The interests of justice do not require a new trial to be ordered” and the musician, real name Adidja Palmer, has since been declared a free man.
Kartel was first imprisoned in Jamaica in 2011 following the disappearance of his associate Williams. At the time of the case, Jamaican police testified that Kartel’s phone held a text stating that Williams’ body was turned to “mincemeat”. He continued to release songs from prison, releasing over 50 singles since 2016, prompting his supporters to continue campaigning relentlessly for his release.
Prosecutors alleged that the associate was beaten to death at the singer’s home in August of 2011 after being lured there to answer for two missing illegal guns.
The “Fever” artist remains a popular artist in Jamaica and is well known internationally for his 2009 Major Lazer collaboration “Pon De Floor” which was heavily sampled on Beyoncé’s “Run the World (Girls)”.
During the initial trial, hundreds of Jamaicans gathered outside court chanting “free Kartel” while police in riot gear guarded barricaded streets outside Kingston’s Supreme Court. The trial lasted 65 days, the longest in Jamaica’s history.
At the trial to quash their conviction, lawyers argued that the trial judge at the time wrongly handled allegations that one juror offered 500,000 Jamaican dollars (around $3,200) to fellow jurors to return not guilty verdicts.
About 200 people briefly broke through barricades at one intersection shouting “free Kartel”, shortly before the jury started their deliberations in the afternoon.
In 2013, another murder case against Kartel and two other co-defendants collapsed after prosecutors failed to produce evidence to support allegations that the trio killed businessman Barrington “Bossy” Burton in 2011.
