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Jamaican dancehall star Vybz Kartel is freed from jail after serving 13 years of a life sentence for murder.
Vybz Kartel: The Controversial Dancehall King
Vybz Kartel is a Jamaican dancehall deejay whose real name is Adidja Azim Palmer. He’s often referred to as the “World Boss” or “Teacha”. Known for his distinctive vocal style and provocative lyrics, Kartel has a massive following and is considered one of the most influential figures in dancehall music.
However, his career has been marked by significant controversy. He was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment for murder in 2014.
Vybz Kartel was arrested in 2011 on charges of murder. Specifically, he was accused of the murder of Clive “Lizard” Williams. His arrest stemmed from an ongoing investigation into Williams’ disappearance.
Clive ‘Lizard’ Williams was murdered in 2011, police said his death was the result of a dispute with Kartel, 48, and associates over missing guns. His body was never found. Investigators believe he was beaten to death inside of his home on outskirts of Kingston.
Vybz Kartel’s arrest and subsequent conviction for the murder of Clive “Lizard” Williams was a major shock to the music industry and his fans. The case was highly publicized, and the evidence presented by the prosecution led to a guilty verdict and a life sentence for Kartel and his co-defendants.
After a 64-day trial in Kingston, one of the longest in Jamaican history, Kartel and three others were convicted in 2014. Kartel was sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum of 35 years, later reduced on appeal to 32-and-a-half.
A key piece of evidence in the trial was a text message that police said they retrieved from Kartel’s phone saying Williams had been chopped up in a ‘mincemeat’ so fine his remains would never be located.
Authorities said the case had posed numerous security challenges. Prosecution witnesses and relatives of the victim needed state protection due to numerous threats.
Officers were also threatened, including Detective Sgt. Patrick Linton, whose home was attacked with a fire bomb after he testified against Kartel.
In February, Kartel and his co-defendants mounted their final possible appeal at the Privy Council in London, the final court of appeal in Jamaica and some other Commonwealth countries.
The singer, who collaborated with Rihanna and Jay-Z during his career, has long maintained that his treatment in prison was brutal, with no air circulation and being forced to use a bucket as a toilet.
Despite this treatment, Kartel released an album from prison, King of the Dancehall, which got to number two in the Billboard Reggae charts in 2016.
Kartel shot to fame with his 2003 album Up 2 Di Time. Later his song, Pon De Floor, was used as the sample for Beyonce’s Run the Worlds (Girls).
In a brief interview with Fox New York, one of Kartel’s lawyers described his living conditions.
‘His neck was swollen, if you think of a shirt that is about 18.5 inches in the neck area, you couldn’t close the collar on his neck and that’s how bad it is in this moment,’ the lawyer said.
‘His face is actually swollen. And one other thing. He always wears glasses; in this condition, that causes his eyes to protrude.’
‘We conclude that the interest of justice does not require a new trial to be ordered,’ the court’s ruling read in part.
Their lawyers argued the trial judge wrongly handled allegations that one juror offered 500,000 Jamaican dollars (around $3,200) to fellow jurors to return not guilty verdicts.
This contributed to the judge’s decision to release Kartel as that action affected the verdict.
The Privy Council sent the case back to the Court of Appeal in Jamaica to decide whether Kartel and his co-defendants should stand trial again.
Although he has been jailed since 2011, Kartel recorded numerous new songs from his cell using a smartphone and co-wrote a book about himself titled ‘The Voice of the Jamaica Ghetto.’
He’s long been popular among young Jamaicans, especially those in blighted slums.
As his popularity grew, he increasingly got in trouble with the law.
Last year, another murder case against Kartel collapsed after prosecutors failed to produce enough evidence to support allegations that he and two others killed businessman Barrington ‘Bossy’ Burton in 2011.
In addition to the thousands of people who celebrated his release on the streets of Jamaican capital, rapper Drake posted a photo of himself wearing a ‘Free Kartel’ t-shirt to celebrate the news.
At 5:29 p.m., the right foot of dancehall star Adidja ‘Vybz Kartel’ Palmer connected with Tower Street in downtown Kingston. It was his first step into freedom from prison and into the welcoming embrace of a crowd of supporters chanting his name.
The smartphones were up, and many persons went live from the scene, bridging the gap for those around the world who craved real-time updates.
After his release, Kartel had very few words and kept it simple, leaving a message for the youths.
“One thing me want tell the youths dem, stay out a f$&%#@*,” Kartel said.
Children, many of whom were seeing Kartel in the flesh for the first time, and their parents were outside in the sun, where they waited for almost three hours for the man of the moment to present himself.
