‘Right to a fair trial should be preserved at all costs’

LONDON, England:

Some Jamaican legal experts in the United Kingdom have welcomed the ruling of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council that the murder conviction of Adidja ‘Vybz Kartel’ Palmer and three other accused be set aside and the case sent back to the Court of Appeal in Jamaica for a retrial to be considered.

Kartel, Shawn ‘Shawn Storm’ Campbell, Kahiro Jones, and Andre ‘Mad Suss’ St John had taken their appeal against the 2014 murder conviction of Clive ‘Lizard’ Williams to the UK Privy Council after an earlier attempt was thrown out by the Jamaican Court of Appeal.

On Thursday, the UK Privy Council, Jamaica’s final court, said the board had unanimously concluded that the appeals should be allowed and the appellants’ convictions should be quashed on the grounds of juror misconduct.

Further, the Privy Council ruled 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 Williams.

Linda Hudson, a UK-based barrister, believes that the Privy Council’s verdict points to an important clause in the Jamaican Constitution that an individual’s right to a fair trial must be preserved.

“The fundamental rights guaranteed by the Jamaican Constitution, including the right to a fair trial, should be preserved at all costs. Allowing a juror who tried to bribe other jurors to remain on the jury could never have resulted in a fair verdict,” Hudson told The Sunday Gleaner.

“The integrity of the justice system has to be protected by everyone involved. The UK Privy Council’s decision to quash the appellants’ convictions is the just outcome.”

DPP’S POSITION NO LONGER TENABLE

A more stinging view of the role of the Director of Public Prosecutions, Paula Llewellyn, KC, in securing an unsafe conviction came from Matondo K Mukulu, a practising barrister in the United Kingdom. He felt that the DPP’s position is no longer tenable.

“It is always good when the judicial system corrects a fundamental procedural error so that fairness is applied,” Mukulu told The Sunday Gleaner.

“However, it is obvious to those who care to see that the position of the drector of public prosecutions, who played an instrumental role in securing an unsafe conviction in circumstances where a new trial should have been directed, is no longer tenable.”

He added: “It is inconceivable that members of the public still have confidence in Ms Llewellyn when as an officer of the court and a KC she encouraged the judge to, in effect, ignore the Constitution. She should do what right-thinking people are saying: ‘Jamaica now deserves a new DPP’.”

Another legal expert, Simone Bowman, who is a barrister in England and Wales and an attorney-at-law in Jamaica, noted that “juries are the bulwark of our societies. However, what we have observed in this case is jury misconduct in its highest form. The Privy Council’s decision to quash the convictions simply highlights the lack of apathy of legal due process within the judicial system of Jamaica.”

NOT IF JAMAICA WAS A REPUBLIC

Meanwhile, UK reggae music historian Kwaku noted the irony that it was the UK Privy Council that overturned the conviction, or the case would have ended in Jamaica if it was a republic.

“Whilst the Privy Council ruling has not freed Vybz Kartel and the other men, it has opened the door for a retrial. Incidentally, if Jamaica was a republic, the case would have ended in Jamaica and not been sent to the Privy Council in England for another opportunity for an appeal,” Kwaku reasoned.

The Kartel and co-accused case has now been remitted to the Jamaican Court of Appeal for a decision to be made concerning a retrial for the four men. The DPP and defence attorneys are expected to present arguments to the court for it to make a decision.

editorial@gleanerjm.com