Letter of the Day | An inglorious end
Published:Thursday | March 21, 2024 | 12:07 AM
THE EDITOR, Madam:
Adidja ‘Vybz Kartel’ Palmer and his co-accused would have had to wait another 15 to 25 years for parole considerations if the judge and the DPP had given the Devil the benefit of the law for their own peace of mind. But they did not. Consequently, Palmer and his co-accused have divested themselves of the label ‘convicted murderers’.
I do accept the judge’s dilemma, but he ought to have known and done better. His anxiety, shared by the DPP, to gloriously close the case has ended in a premature discharge enjoyed only by the worshippers of Mr Palmer, while everyone else remains frustrated with unreleased emotions.
This follows three adverse jury incidents, the third of which was brought to the judge”s attention on the 64th and final day of the trial. By all indication, this had contaminated 11 of the jurors, to include juror 12, who had been discharged from the jury due to fear for her son’s life in February 2014. It would be very difficult to not agree with the JCPC’s ruling that juror X’s tenure on the jury was fatal to the safety of the convictions that followed.
Then, there’s the unfinished matter of the illegally obtained evidence, lending itself to a breach of the right to privacy of communication. What were they thinking? Sensational headlines followed by a glorious place in history? Or maybe a case of haste makes waste!
R A SILENCE