‘No intention to bring office of DPP into disrepute’
Lawyers for Kartel, co-accused say only focus is a just outcome in matter
THE defence team for the four men whose convictions for the 2011 murder of Clive “Lizard” Williams were last week overturned by the Privy Council, on Monday responded to concerns by the island’s chief prosecutor about certain utterances in the wake of the ruling.
Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Paula Llewellyn, King’s Counsel, in a weekend interview with the Jamaica Observer, addressed what she labelled “a campaign” of “misinformation being spread by certain counsel” which she said amounted to an attempt to bring her office “into disrepute”.
“I think it is a veiled attempt to intimidate the office of the DPP and myself from doing our professional duty in respect of properly preparing ourselves to make submissions to the Court of Appeal in this matter, as we are bound to do consequent on the ruling of the Privy Council in this matter,” the DPP said on Sunday in relation to comments referencing the view she had expressed to then Supreme Court Justice Lennox Campbell before he decided to hand the trial to the jury after being informed, at the last minute, that an attempt had been made to bribe the jurors.
Defence attorneys — Bert Samuels, Bianca Samuels, Isat Buchanan, Alessandra Labeach, and John Clarke — in a statement issued to the media on Monday said, “We are unaware of such a campaign and are not a part of it. None of us, the defence counsel in this matter, intend to bring the office of the DPP into disrepute or to rile up any wayward soul to take any action against the Crown or any public servant. As ‘ministers of justice’ we are only focused on a just outcome in this matter and would ask all persons to desist from any PR campaign in this matter.”
Furthermore, the attorneys said, “Any comments we have made in the past simply underline the importance of the DPP or her office learning the lessons from this teachable moment. We suspect that our view of the just outcome of a retrial issue differs significantly from that of the DPP and/ or other sectors of the public. We expect the Crown to prosecute while we will try to provide our client a fair and strong response. We will focus on preparing our submissions for the
Court of Appeal, and acting as responsible legal professionals.”
The Judicial Committee of the Privy Council last Thursday quashed the murder convictions of Adidja “Vybz Kartel” Palmer and his co-accused Shawn “Shawn Storm” Campbell, Kahira Jones, and Andre St John, for the 2011 murder of Clive “Lizard” Williams and remitted the question of whether there should be a retrial to Jamaica’s Court of Appeal.
The law lords, in their ruling, said the decision by the original trial judge to continue the murder trial after the attempted bribe of the jury had been brought to his attention “gave rise to a miscarriage of justice”.
Lord Lloyd-jones, in delivering the ruling, said the board was of the view that the tainted juror should not have been kept on the jury.
In April 2014 Kartel was sentenced to life in prison, with eligibility for parole after serving 35 years of his sentence. His co-accused were also handed life sentences, with Shawn Storm and Jones being eligible for parole after serving 25 years, and St John being eligible after serving 15 years.
In April 2020, following an appeal, the men’s parole times were reduced by two and a half years each.
In September that same year the men were granted conditional leave to challenge their murder convictions before the Privy Council.