Vybz Kartel set free after appeals court rules against retrial

Dancehall megastar, Adidja Palmer, more popularly known as Vybz Kartel, is a free man.

Palmer, plus his co-accused, Shawn “Shawn Storm” Kingston, Andre St. John and Kahira Jones will not be retried for murder. This after The Court of Appeal unanimously ruled in favor of the men, whose recent murder convictions for the 2011 slaying of Clive ‘Lizard’ Williams, were struck down by the Privy Council in February. However, Jones must remain in custody due to a sentence in a separate case.

Palmer’s lawyers, Isat Buchanan and John Clarke, successfully argued their clients should be freed based on constitutional breaches and leaked evidence. Additionally, they argued too much time passed since the 2014 trial of Williams. They insisted the accused men’s right to be tried within a reasonable timeframe was breached. Furthermore, they alluded to Palmer’s growing health challenges as the artiste battles Graves Disease.

The attorneys representing Vybz Kartel and the other men who were freed of the 2014 murder conviction of Clive ‘Lizard’ Williams were treated like royalty when they emerged from the Court of Appeal today.

Lead attorney, Isat Buchanan, says he expects Kartel to be freed today. pic.twitter.com/ISFLW6h08u

— Nationwide90FM (@NationwideRadio) July 31, 2024

A jubilant crowd in downtown Kingston celebrated amid the release confirmation of Vybz Kartel and his co-accused. The retrial decision comes a day before Jamaica’s Emancipation Day. It also arrives months after the UK’s Privy Council struck down the convictions of Palmer and his co-accused. The Privy Council pointed out errors in the investigation and the failure to dismiss a corrupt juror as reasons for their decision.

Palmer was incarcerated since 2011 when he was taken into custody for the alleged murder of Williams in Havendale. He also stood accused of killing another man in a separate case later dismissed before the Williams case reached trial.