Vybz Kartel is blasting the justice system in Jamaica as the wait for a verdict in his appeal trial intensifies.
In an Instagram story post uploaded on the incarcerated Dancehall’s account, Vybz Kartel criticised the justice system and threatened to take his appeal case to the high court in the United Kingdom.
“4 months of trial wid 6k page a transcription, then unuh take one hour fi cook up man and convict.. one f***in hour! now we affi wait one year fi appeal?” Vybz Kartel wrote. “Fool unuh take man fa but hurry up and finish unuh crucifiction so we can get real justice a UK me never stop bun boasty slave.”
Vybz Kartel, whose given name is Adidja Palmer, along with fellow entertainer Shawn Storm, Andre St John, and Kahira Jones were found guilty in 2014 of the 2011 murder of Clive ‘Lizard’ Williams after a trial lasted for 65 days.
They were all given mandatory life sentences with the self-proclaimed “Worl’Boss”, ordered to serve 35 years before he is eligible for parole. Campbell, Jones and St John were ordered to each serve 25 years before they become eligible for parole.
Last summer, they made an appeal against their murder convictions in the Supreme Court. In nearly five days of legal submissions, the attorneys for Kartel and his three co-convicts argued that their right to a fair trial was prejudiced by a number of factors.
Among them, the admission of ‘contaminated’ evidence during their 17-week murder trial. Chief among the ‘contaminated’ evidence was a BlackBerry message that was lifted from the deejay’s mobile phone. During the appeal, the Prosecution argued that the integrity of the evidence remains intact and asked the judges to treat the message as an admission to murder.
However months later, a blanket of uncertainty still hovers over their appeal case, as the date when the verdict will be announced remains unknown.
According to Vybz Kartel’s attorney, Bert Samuels says the waiting time the team is now facing is not unusual.
“This appeal is 10 times the size of a normal appeal, and, therefore, it will take much longer than the usual nine months that I have to wait to hear something. The trial lasted four and a half months, the average murder case lasts two weeks. There were 6,500 pages of evidence presented that they will have to now comb through again,” he told The Star. “But the moment I do (know the date), trust me, it will spread like wildfire.”
