Jamaican Dancehall Artist Vybz Kartel and his co-accused Shawn ‘Storm’ Campbell, Kahira Jones, and Andre St. John have finally been freed from Prison.
The Court of Appeal just ruled that Kartel and three co-accused should not be retried for murder.
Jones, however, will remain in custody because he is serving a sentence in an unrelated case.
Kartel and his co-accused, who have served over 12 years in prison were charged in September 2011 and convicted in March 2014 of Clive 'Lizard' Williams' murder. They were sentenced to life in prison in April 2014.
In April 2020, the Court Of Appeal upheld the convictions but reduced their parole eligibility by two and a half years each.
They were then allowed to appeal to the UK-based Privy Council on the grounds that crucial cellular evidence was improperly obtained, that the jury was tainted after a bribery attempt, and that the original trial judge, Justice Lennox Campbell, placed undue pressure on the jury to reach a verdict.
In March this year, the Privy Council overturned the convictions after finding that a juror accused of attempted bribery should have been removed from the trial.
The defence led by John Clarke and Isat Buchanan argued that the men should be freed in the interest of justice, claiming constitutional breaches, pre-trial publicity, and leaking of evidence from the trial.
They stressed that the length of time that has elapsed since the incident is a factor that must weigh against ordering a new trial, especially since the elapse has resulted in the breach of the accused men’s right to be tried within a reasonable time.
