15/03/2024
Vybz Kartel: Jamaica dancehall star's murder conviction overturned
By BBC
The 48-year-old was given a life sentence in 2014 for the killing of Clive "Lizard" Williams on the Caribbean island.
His successful appeal, heard by the Privy Council in London, argued that a juror accused of trying to bribe others should have been thrown off his trial.
Authorities in Jamaica will decide whether the case should be retried.
The musician, real name Adidja Palmer, is one of the country's most popular artists and has collaborated with performers such as Jay-Z and Rihanna.
His 64-day trial was one of the longest in Jamaican history, and ended with Kartel being ordered to serve a minimum of 35 years in jail.
This was later reduced to 32-and-a-half years.
The trial heard that victim Clive Williams and another man, Lamar Chow, were given two unlicensed firearms belonging to Kartel for safekeeping.
When they failed to return them at an agreed time, prosecutors said, they were summoned to Kartel's house in August 2011.
Chow told the trial they were attacked and the last thing he saw was Clive Williams - who was never seen alive again - lying motionless on the ground
The house burned down days later and a body was never recovered.
Kartel and his co-accused Shawn Campbell, Kahira Jones and Andre St John had maintained their innocence since the original trial.
The judge let them remain on the case and have a say in the final verdicts.
Allowing this juror to stay, the council said, was "fatal to the safety of the convictions which followed" and "an infringement of the [defendants'] fundamental right to a fair hearing".
The men had also argued that jurors were sent to reach a verdict late in the day, putting them under "undue pressure" to do so.
They had also argued that a key piece of mobile phone evidence - a text message allegedly sent from Kartel's phone - presented in court had been obtained in breach of guidelines.
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