Vybz Kartel’s Privy Council Appeal: Application To Introduce “Fresh Evidence” Denied

Dancehall star Vybz Kartel‘s application to introduce ‘fresh evidence’ in his long-running legal battle to overturn his murder conviction has been denied by the United Kingdom-based Privy Council, Jamaica’s final court.

However, the main arguments in the appeal are still to be heard, challenging the April 2020 ruling of the Jamaica Court Of Appeal, which largely upheld his 2014 murder conviction.

A new report of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council named Kartel, whose real name is Adidja Palmer, and his co-accused Shawn Campbell, Kahira Jones and Andre St. John as appellants vs The King, as the respondent, in two applications made in November 2020.

The defense’s submissions had sought to introduce evidence that Kartel’s cellphone, which contained damning text and voice messages linking him to the murder of Clive ‘Lizard’ Williams, had shown signs of tampering while in police custody.

“Having considered written submissions from the Appellants and the Respondent, we have agreed to report to Your Majesty as our opinion that permission to appeal to be refused in the application dated 20 November 2020,” the committee reported on Wednesday (February 15).

The submission which sought to “advance additional grounds of appeal” was also denied.

“The grounds do not support the submission that a serious miscarriage of justice has occurred in this case,” the opinion stated.

When contacted, Vybz Kartel’s attorney-at-law Isat Buchanan was tight-lipped. “The matter is sub judice,” he told DancehallMag.

In law, sub judice, Latin for “under a judge,” means that a particular case or matter is under trial or being considered by a judge or court.

Kartel had previously expressed his confidence in getting a fair ruling from the Privy Council, adding that he did not believe he could get a fair one from the justice system in Jamaica.

“I would like to say re the Privy Council that I am going to be out soon. Law and statute are what the council deals in, not corruption. The appeal hearing in Jamaica, just like the trial, was a joke, a kangaroo court, a circus,” he told Billboard Magazine in 2020.

Kartel and co-accused fellow artist Shawn ‘Shawn Storm’ Campbell, and cronies Kahira Jones, and Andre “Mad Suss” St John were all given mandatory life sentences in 2014 for the 2011 murder of ‘Lizard’ Williams, which prosecutors say, took place at a house in Havendale, St Andrew.

Lizard’s body was never found.

In addition to the cellphone evidence, prosecutors also relied on the sole eyewitness, Lamar “Wee” Chow, who made an account of the events that took place on August 16, 2011.

Wee testified that on that day, he had accompanied Shawn ‘Storm’ Campbell and Lizard (the deceased) to Kartel’s Havendale home, where they were summoned over missing firearms, which were referred to, in the damming cellphone messages, as “shoes.”  Wee said Kartel, Andre St. John and Kahira Jones were already at the house.

According to Wee, while they were being questioned by Kartel about the guns, Jones held Lizard from behind, while he (Wee) immediately ran into another room.  Wee added that Kartel and Campbell forcibly brought him back to the room, where he saw Lizard lying motionless on his back, with Jones bending over him and St. John holding a concrete block in his hands.

Wee claimed that he feared for his own safety, so he fled again, this time running from the house by climbing over a gate.  He testified that he was chased by Kartel, who later assured him that he had nothing to worry about.  However, instead of returning to the house, Wee said he accompanied Kartel to a hospital where he was treated for a dog bite that the deejay had apparently received during the chase.

Kartel’s defense questioned Wee’s credibility during the trial and cited his inconsistent account of the events, including a purported letter by Wee to a Public Defender which stated that he saw Lizard after August 16, 2011, and that he had been pressured by the police to give a conflicting statement.

Kartel, Storm, Jones and St John were all convicted of Lizard’s murder on April 3, 2014.  All four men received life sentences with parole eligibility.

Kartel was initially given 35 years before being eligible for parole, before it was reduced to 32 years and six months, following an appeal that upheld the conviction.

St John, who had to serve 30 years before being eligible for parole, had his time shaved down to 27 years and six months. Shawn Storm and Jones, who had to serve 25 years before being eligible, had theirs reduced to 22 years and six months.

Correction: This article had incorrectly reported that Kartel’s appeal was denied in its entirety. It has been updated.