Credit: Apple Music

Jamaican dancehall star Vybz Kartel has been freed from prison following his 2014 murder conviction.

Real name Adidja Palmer, Kartel is best known for working with famous artists such as Rihanna, Jay-Z and Missy Elliot, and is credited with inspiring the dancehall-inspired work of Drake. In 2014, the now 48-year-old was sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of a 27-year-old associate, Clive ‘Lizard’ Williams.

In 2011, Kartel was arrested by Jamaican police for cannabis possession and was later charged with the murder of businessman Barrington Burton, conspiracy and the illegal possession of a firearm. Although the emcee was granted bail for the Burton murder in March 2012, he remained incarcerated in connection with the murder of Williams.

He was charged, along with two other people, including Vanessa ‘Gaza Slim’ Saddler, with perverting the course of justice after she reportedly claimed Williams had robbed her to mislead the police into believing he was still alive.

Kartel’s trial was first scheduled for January 21st, 2013, but was postponed due to a lack of jurors, and rescheduled for July. On the 24th of that month, he was found not guilty of the murder of Burton, but remained in custody pending the Williams case. The trial for the Williams murder began on November 18th, 2013 and on March 13th of the following year, he was found guilty of Williams’ murder. On April 3rd, he was sentenced to life, with the justice stating he would only be eligible for parole after serving 35 years. He has always maintained his innocence.

In March, Kartel’s conviction was overturned by UK judges at the Privy Council, the fifth and highest tier of the Jamaican Court System. As a Commonwealth national, the country’s judiciary is accountable to the Council’s verdict. It was the last resort for Kartel and his co-defendants, Shawn Campbell, Kahira Jones and Andre St John.

Kartel’s defence argued that a juror accused of attempting to bribe others should have been removed from the trial. The Privy Council agreed with this argument and ruled back in March that the decision not to do so undermined the conviction. At the time, the judges stated it was “fatal to the safety of the convictions which followed” and “an infringement of the [defendants’] fundamental right to a fair hearing”.

Despite the Privy Council overturning the conviction, the Jamaican authorities still had time to decide whether the case should go to a retrial.

Now, though, Kartel has been freed from prison after 13 years behind bars, with judges ruling he should not face a murder retrial. On Wednesday, the three Court of Appeal judges in Jamaica decided that the case would not return to court, qualifying Kartel, who is reportedly in “declining health”, for a potential release.

“We conclude that the interests of justice do not require a new trial,” Justice Marva McDonald-Bishop said. This led to the emcee’s release on Wednesday evening, when he was met by a flock of supporters in the capital, Kingston. He then took to social media to celebrate the landmark moment.

McDonald-Bishop asserted that the original case against Kartel and the co-defendants concerned a “deliberate attack and barefaced defiance of law and order … the nature, the seriousness, and prevalence of the alleged offence in this case are powerful factors that weighed in favour of a retrial”.

McDonald-Bishop also maintained that the trio had debated the “egregious nature and seriousness of the offence” against the time passed, lack of witnesses and evidence, and costly nature of a retrial.

Campbell and St John were also freed, but Jones remains in prison due to a separate sentence due to a 2009 incident.