By: Staff Writer
March 15, 2024
Adidja Azim Palmer, aka “Vybz Kartel” or “World Boss,” had his 2014 murder conviction of Clive “Lizard” Williams quashed by the UK’s Privy Council yesterday.
Palmer, a well know reggae and dancehall artist from Jamaica, despite being in prison, led a very prolific life behind bars where he was often said to have been let out from time to time and recording music while his appeal to Jamaica’s highest court came to its conclusion yesterday.
The House of Lords in their March 14 oral ruling, said that Palmer and his co-defendants Shawn Campbell, Kahira Jones and André St. John, should have their 2014 murder conviction “quashed,” because of “juror misconduct,” because the lower court had put too much pressure on the jury to reach a verdict. In addition, the trial judge in the lower court in Jamaica had “failed” to take into consideration the breach in the Interception of Communications Act when the authorities had gathered evidence from cellular communications they used in court to convict Palmer and others.
The Privy Council could not let such a breach in the law to arrive to a verdict stand. “There was no evidence to connect his activities with the appellants. The appellants appealed against their conviction to the Court of Appeal of Jamaica, which dismissed their appeals.
“The Court of Appeal granted permission to appeal to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council on three grounds, which were first, that the trial judge failed properly to inquire into allegations of juror misconduct.
“Secondly, that the trial judge departed from standard practice in inviting the jury to retire to consider their verdict so late in the day, putting undue pressure on them to reach a verdict. And thirdly, that the trial judge erred in admitting the telecommunications data because it had been obtained in breach of the interception of Communications Act, and the charter.
“The Judicial Committee of the Privy Council has unanimously concluded that the appeals should be allowed, and the appellants convictions should be quashed on the grounds of juror misconduct, and that the case should be remitted to the Court of Appeal of Jamaica to decide whether to order a retrial of the appellants for the murder of Clive Williams.”