Attorney believes Vybz Kartel conviction will be overturned due to tainted jury

By Prince Moore    

 

Attorney Bert Samuels says he is confident the conviction of entertainer Adidja 'Vybz Kartel' Palmer and three other convicts will not stand given the evidence of a tainted jury.

 

The four men were convicted on March 13, 2014 for the murder of Clive 'Lizard' Williams.

 

The other convicts are Shawn 'Shawn Storm' Campbell, Kahira Jones, and Andre 'Mad Suss' St. John.

 

The UK-based? Judicial Committee of the Privy Council is continuing its second and final day of hearing the long-awaited appeal.

 

Mr. Samuels, who is representing Kahira Jones, said the questions posed by the judges is an indication of the direction in which the Privy Council is heading. 

 

"One of the judges said to the prosecutor, 'So tell me, the judge was aware that this case was going to be virtually heard by 10 jurors? And he walked into the trap and said, 'Yes.' And then the judge said, 'But 10 jurors at the time cannot try a murder case.' He said, 'That's not a jury. A jury is 11 or 12. A jury in a murder case at the time cannot be 10. So that virtually they didn't have a jury.' That was the reasoning. I found that very attractive," Mr. Samuels shared. 

 

"There were others who were interfering and interrupting the prosecutor to ask him whether he thought that if jurors became untrue to their oath, if they should remain. And they were very blunt. The juror should have been removed. Now, once that juror should have been removed, that means the conviction is very, very tenuous," the attorney pointed out optimistically while speaking Wednesday evening on TVJ's All Angles. 

 

Meanwhile, Leonard Green, President of the Advocates Association of Jamaica, believes the law lords in the Privy Council are paying attention to the fairness of the jurors in reaching a verdict within limited tiime. 

 

"There is a direction from the British judges called Watson direction. And one starts from the position that a jury must be free to deliberate without any form of pressure being imposed on them, whether by we have promise or threat or otherwise. The British courts are very firm on the whole business of fairness."

 

Mr. Green said jurors being sent out late could affect fairness.

 

"Very often the [jurors] are tired. It's a long day. They want to go home. They may not be in the state of mind to deliver a verdict which is true to their own consciences," he explained.

 

Mr. Green was also a guest on TVJ's All Angles. 

 

The hearing of the appeal by the Privy Council resumed Thursday at 5:30 a.m. Jamaica time.