The nine-member team of lawyers representing incarcerated dancehall star Vybz Kartel is well prepared for his expedited appeal hearing in February 2024.
That is according to Jamaican attorney-at-law Bert Samuels.
The deejay’s appeal was initially to be heard in the United Kingdom’s Privy Council in April next year, but was expedited to February 14-15, 2024, due to the artist’s health concerns.
Earlier this year, attorney Isat Buchanan confirmed that his 47-year-old client was suffering from Graves’ disease, an autoimmune disorder which he has been battling for seven years. There have also been reports of the entertainer suffering from two heart conditions.
Samuels said though the appeal hearing date has been moved up, the team of lawyers, including four from overseas, are well prepared.
“Prison is not a nice place, especially when you have health issues. Kartel has to have a special diet … he can’t eat everything … and being in lockdown for hours on end only makes it worse. I am happy to know that it has been granted and yes, we are prepared,” Samuels told The Star.
Samuels said he is not surprised that the request for a new date was granted, as humanitarian grounds “are always attractive.”
The hearing will be to appeal the 2014 murder convictions of the dancehall artiste and his co-convicts: Shawn ‘Shawn Storm’ Campbell, Kahira Jones and Andre St John.
Read more: Vybz Kartel gets Privy Council appeal hearing for February 2024
Palmer, Campbell, Jones and St John were all handed life sentences in April 2014 for the 2011 murder of Clive ‘Lizard’ Williams. Prosecutors say the murder took place at Palmer’s house in Havendale, St Andrew.
In April 2020, two years after the Court of Appeal in Jamaica upheld Palmer’s murder conviction, his legal team took the decision to appeal to the island’s highest court, the Privy Council.
The deejay, who has been in prison since 2011, had two and a half years shaved off his sentence and must now serve at least 32 years and 6 months instead of the 35 years minimum before being eligible for parole.
If the upcoming appeal is dismissed, Vybz Kartel will be eligible for parole in the year 2046.
