No new dates yet for cases sent back in 2022 and 2023 for retrial

The Court of Appeal panel hearing the Vybz Kartel retrial matter has received a report from the Supreme Court showing that two cases have been sent back for retrial in the Home Circuit Court since 2018.

They are murder matters sent back for retrial in 2022 and 2023, and no trial dates have been fixed, Justice Marva McDonald-Bishop disclosed Friday morning. The accused persons remain in custody.

The report also indicates that judge-alone criminal matters are now being set for "late 2025", while jury cases are at "late 2026". The report says there is a system to give priority to cases. 

The Court of Appeal requested the information on Monday to help it assess whether it will make sense to order that entertainer Vybz Kartel and three of his co-accused should be retried for murder. 

Meanwhile, the prosecution has asked the Court of Appeal to take notice that despite heavy global attention, criminal trials proceeded in cases involving Americans Bill Cosby and Harvey Weinstein, and South African Oscar Pistorius.

A retrial was recently ordered in one of Weinstein's cases. 

Prosecutor Janek Forbes has argued that the cases were allowed to continue because "it is in the interest of justice".

In relation to the Vybz Kartel case, he accepted that there has been heightened publicity, but he insisted that it is not fatal to a fair retrial with a jury. 

McDonald-Bishop raised questions about the length of time Cosby, Weinstein and Pistorius spent in custody before the cases were resolved. She said for comparisons, parallels must be drawn, and each case must turn on its own facts. 

Kartel, whose given name is Adidja Palmer, Shaw 'Shawn Storm' Campbell, Kahira Jones and Andre St John were all handed life sentences in April 2014 for the 2011 murder of Clive 'Lizard' Williams.

However, on March 14, 2024, the United Kingdom-based Privy Council overturned the convictions on the grounds of juror misconduct.

It said the trial judge should have dismissed tainted juror Livingston Cain, who was later found guilty of accepting a bribe to try to influence the panel. 

However, the Privy Council did not free the men.

It ordered that the Court of Appeal should decide whether there should be a retrial.

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