March 15, 2024
I guess we have all heard the reports that the World Boss, Vybz Kartel, had his murder conviction quashed. Good for him. Now he can go back to making murder music at a rapid clip now that he will be a free man.
But his conviction was wrought with inconsistencies that caused the UK’s Privy Council to send the conviction back to the Court of Appeal in Jamaica for them to make other arrangements for Kartel and his co-defendants. Ten years of their life, wasted, because the Jamaican judicial system was trying to be too hasty to lock them up in the first place.
There was jury problems, one juror had to be taken off of the case because it was said that they were trying to buy the other jurors. Cellular phone evidence taken outside of the law, or in other words, “illegally,” from Kartel before his trial. You cannot convict someone of a crime on criminally obtained information. The mere thought of the Jamaican judicial system trying to do that is offensive to anyone with a fair-minded brain on justice.
This shows how backward the Jamaican judicial system still is and has to rely on the Privy Council in the UK to help them make complex decisions. It was also noted that the Jamaican judicial system does not have a mechanism in place that when a jury falls apart, the matter can be heard by the judge without need of a jury.
It’s madness. But hopefully this will help Prime Minister Andrew Holness to make changes needed to the Jamaican judicial system.