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Jamaican dancehall artist Vybz Kartel’s conviction for murder has been overturned.
The 48-year-old had been given a life sentence for the killing of associate Clive “Lizard” Williams on the Carribbean island in 2014.
Kartel, real name Adidja Palmer, and three co-defendants successfully appealed on grounds of juror misconduct.
Authorities in Jamaica will decide whether the case should be retried.
The musician, whose real name is Adidja Palmer, is one of the Commonwealth country’s most popular artists and has collaborated with performers such as Jay-Z and Rihanna.
His 64-day trial was one of the longest in Jamaican history, and ended with Kartel being ordered to serve a minimum of 35 years in jail.
This was later reduced to 32-and-a-half years.
Kartel and his co-accused Shawn Campbell, Kahira Jones and Andre St John had maintained their innocence since the original trial.
Their appeal hearing before the Privy Council last month, which serves as the highest court of appeal in Jamaica and other Commonwealth countries, was their last chance to reverse the verdict.
Delivering the council’s ruling, a panel of justices said that a juror accused of attempting to bribe fellow jury members was not removed.
They were allowed to remain on the case, and had a say in the final verdicts.
Allowing this juror to stay, the council said, was “fatal to the safety of the convictions which followed” and “an infringement of the [defendants’] fundamental right to a fair hearing.”
The men had also argued that jurors were sent to reach a verdict late in the day, putting them under “undue pressure” to do so, and that mobile phone evidence presented in court had been obtained in breach of guidelines.
However, the panel did not rule on these matters, finding that the allegations of bribery alone were serious enough to dismiss the guilty verdicts.
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3 April 2014