Former Prime Minister of Jamaica PJ Patterson says a fatal error occurred in the trial of Vybz Kartel and his co-accused.
Patterson, a King’s Counsel, gave his opinion on the trial and recent Privy Council judgment in a joint statement alongside well-known jurist and lawyer Hugh Small, also a King’s Counsel.
The men stated that the trial judge’s decision to continue the trial in light of allegations of jury tampering showed limited knowledge of the law.
“The judgment of the Privy Council in the case popularly called the Vybz Kartel appeal has attracted attention because the Privy Council ruled that the Jamaican judges at the appellate stage should have discharged all the jurors from continuing to try the accused persons,” the statement said.
Patterson disclosed that in 1983, there was a notable case with striking similarities to Vybz Kartel’s situation, particularly concerning the handling of a tainted jury pool.
“Neither the trial judge, Justice Lennox Campbell nor the three judges who heard the appeal from the ruling and verdict, were apparently aware that there was a judgment of the Court of Appeal of Jamaica in 1983 that ruled in similar circumstances, that the duty of the court was to discharge the entire jury and order a new trial,” the statement said.
“It is regrettable that this case was not brought to the attention of Justice Campbell, the judges of the Jamaica Court of Appeal, Dennis Morrison, Patrick Brooks, and Franklyn Williams or cited in the Privy Council,” Patterson and Small wrote.
Last week Thursday, Vybz Kartel, Shawn Campbell, Kahira Jones, and Andre St John, had their 2014 life sentences quashed by the Privy Council on the basis of jury tampering.
The Court of Appeal in Jamaica will decide whether to order a retrial or set them free.
The Privy Council’s panel of justices said that the decision to not discharge the jury or the accused juror following allegations of bribery attempts was “fatal to the safety of the convictions which followed.”
“To have continued the criminal case against Vybz Kartel et al, notwithstanding 64 days of trial, was not merely a risk, but a fatal error to render any final verdict unacceptable in accordance with the tenets of justice and the decision of our own Court of Appeal in 1983,” the statement concluded.
Jamaica’s Director of Public Prosecutions, Paula Llewellyn, said recently that her office intends to seek a retrial.
