Vybz Kartel’s Appeal Trial Latest Updates July 19th 2018

The battle for Vybz Kartel’s and co-accused freedom went on in front of the Appeal Court this morning again and again was now retired Justice Lennox Campbell’s summation of the evidence in the alleged murder trial that was called out as “defective in form and substance”.

Was this time attorney Oswest Senior-Smith, representing for Andre St John, one of the three Kartel’s co accused that pointed out more deficiency and faults from the previous trial that failed to adequately and fairly deal with the evidence posited by the four men.

Yesterday was the final day for all the accused legal team to wrap up the legal arguments outlining why the convictions and sentences should be overturned.

Today, Jeremy Taylor, senior deputy director of public prosecutions, and Orrett Brown, assistant director of public prosecutions, are scheduled to respond.

Senior-Smith noted, as an example, that during the trial, there was no evidence that on the night Williams was killed, St John had a firearm or did anything that could be conceived as a threat. He charged, too, that the defense put forward by Kartel, real name Adidja Palmer, was treated in a cursory manner, especially his assertions that he did not send anyone to kill Williams and that he did not do it.

“The learned trial judge did not draw the distinction between what Mr Palmer said in his favor as against the allegations against him.

This outright denial of any killing by Mr Palmer was not given sufficient weight by the learned trial judge in his directions to the jury. 

As a result, the strength of Mr Palmer’s unsworn statement was significantly diluted, detrimentally to Mr Palmer,” he added.

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Robert Fletcher, Kahira Jones lawyer, charged that the law enforcement authorities involved in the case were “loose, lax, and inept” and so this left prosecutors with no choice but to “roll out a case with deep and abiding contamination.”

“And to put it at it’s most generous, to lead the learned trial judge into repeated mismanagement of the trial,” is how Mr Fletcher wrapped up his legal arguments before the Court of Appeal this morning.

Listen to Vybz Kartel Shawn Storm “Superstar” April 2017 Fresh Ear Production