Vybz Kartel’s Appeal trial, that has been 4 years in the making, has been wrapped yesterday, after defense and prosecution presented their arguments for over a week in front of the Court Of Appeal in downtown Kingston, Jamaica.
Vybz Kartel and co-accused freedom and future will be now decided by the three judges sitting on the Court of Appeal.
Vybz Kartel fans, his #Gazanation, family, friends and supporters of World Boss, the news coming in as for now are not the most encouraging and will leave many of not most that were looking to see World Boss finally free, disappointed.
After already having the longest trial in Jamaican history hopefully the appeal trial’s verdict won’t follow the same trend,in all senses but also the judges need to be fair this time and not to rush a decision.
The President of the Court of Appeal, Justice Dennis Morrison, told the court that the judges have not yet reached a verdict in the week and a half of the appeal case. Morrison also informed the public that he would not give any indication when a verdict will be reached, but will give the case priority due to the level of public interest.
The long wait of 4 years for this appeal, the pressure, and the hope that the King of dancehall music could finally walk free from prison this month, or at least know his fate, will not happen yet.
After the defense and prosecution wrapped their arguments in the Jamaica court of appeal this past Tuesday July 24th the judge told that they did not have a verdict. Appeal cases in Jamaica can sometimes take weeks to months before a verdict is reached because the judges want to carefully examine in detail the case before handing down a ruling, and there have been plenty of cases in Jamaica where an appeal is no long than three days, but Kartel’s case seems different.
Vybz Kartel and co-accused Appeal trial lasted eight days, the defense took up five days to present their arguments.
Vybz Kartel that has been arrested a the end of September 2011, is still behind bars serving life for the alleged murder of Clive “Lizard” Williams. Vybz Kartel and co-accused, Shawn Storm, Kahira Jones, and Andre St John, filed an appeal to have their conviction overturned.
After more than a week of debate with the defense teams showing how the judge handed down several questionable rulings and appeared bias against the accused men in his summation of the evidence, putting the prosecution on the hot seat for some unethical decision regarding allowing the jury to deliberate even though it was tainted, and with part of the evidence mishandled and even tampered by law enforcement, and even if the judges expressed they were “perplex” about some of the facts presented and regarding the past trial, they still need extra time for their ruling.
The prosecution took two days to argue back, click here for details, saying the evidence are still valid even if tampered with and remarking that there are at least more than 19 circumstantial evidence that would bring the court to reach the same verdict all over again, which would be unjust and unfair again and the least they can do if they can’t free the men is to size down the harsh prior verdict.
