Vybz Kartel Retrial Hearing | Day 6: Defence lawyer raises concerns about absent exhibits

Defence counsel John Clarke today raised concerns about the absence of some of the exhibits in the murder case of Vybz Kartel and his co-accused.

Clarke, during his response this morning in the Court of Appeal to submissions from the Crown, disclosed that the prosecution has only accounted for 16 pieces of evidence, when based on the transcript of the trial there should be 25 exhibits in total.

Among the evidence that is not re-verified is the signature of the main eyewitness on his handwritten statement taken by the police.

“So on the face of the record before the court, it seems there is an issue to be resolved because in Ms [Lorna] Green's affidavit, after she indicated and said 'as a result, I caused checks to be made of the file'… based on my review of the file a total of 16 exhibits were tendered in the matter. I caused a search to be to be conducted of the secure area where the exhibits are stored and it was found that only 16 exhibits are accounted for,” he said.

“It is apparent of the affidavit on record that what the DPP has presented to us as the verification of all the exhibits from Ms Green, that there is still some work to be done,” he added.

He explained that Supreme Court Registrar, Lorna Green, had indicated in her affidavit of re-verification that all the exhibits in the matter were in a secured area and that based on a request from the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) had made the necessary checks and certified that exhibits up to 16 were available.

Consequently, he pointed out that the prosecution in its argument about the strength of its case must consider the exhibits which are accounted for.

Continuing further on the matter of exhibits, Clarke also raised concerns about a possible retrial on exhibits which have already been leaked to the public.

“We agreed entirely with the Crown's submission that mere adverse publicity is not enough for an adverse position. What we are concerned about is not the publicity. What we are concerned about is there prejudice of such a degree in relation to the contents and that we are saying content is the jury tampering linking and the link between the accused men,” he said in addition to the leaked material.

In the meantime, acting DPP Claudette Thompson during earlier submission had indicated that even without the technological material, which includes digital and communication evidence, the Crown would still have an objectively strong case with the direct evidence that it has.

Her argument followed an indication from the defence that it would be challenging the use of some of the technological material if the matter is retried.

Vybz Kartel, who given name is Adidja Palmer, and his co-accused Shawn 'Shawn Storm' Campbell, Kahira Jones and Andre St John were convicted of the murder of Clive Williams in 2011.

But, the Privy Council, which was silent on the merits of the evidence, in March, threw out their convictions on the ground of jury misconduct.

The Court of Appeal today ended hearing arguments from the parties on whether the men are to be retried and has committed to delivering its ruling by July 31.

- Tanesha Mundle

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