The harsh reality of a society plagued by violence

THE Privy Council decision in the appeal of Mr Adidja “Vybz Kartel” Palmer and his three co-convicts — Messrs Shawn “Shawn Storm” Campbell, Kahira Jones, and Andre St John — has expectedly reignited vigorous debate on this matter of great public interest.

In addition to the British law lords’ ruling to quash the convictions of the four men on the ground of juror misconduct, the court’s decision to hand the matter of a retrial back to Jamaica’s Court of Appeal has fuelled an avalanche of public discussions about the merits, or lack thereof, of retrying the men.

The Privy Council had said that, while it empathised with the original trial judge — as he had learnt of the attempted bribe of the jury on the last day of the trial — his decision to not dismiss them “gave rise to a miscarriage of justice”. Interestingly, in regard to one of the claims of the appeal — that the trial judge should have excluded the telecommunications evidence relied on by the prosecution because it was obtained in breach of the constitutional rights of the defendants, and was therefore inadmissible — the British court basically said it was unfortunate that these submissions were not canvassed before the Jamaican courts in the proceedings.

“As a result, the board does not have the benefit of the views of the Jamaican courts on these important matters. In circumstances where the convictions are to be quashed on other grounds, the board takes the view that consideration of these constitutional issues should be deferred to another occasion on which the board may be assisted by the views of the Jamaican judiciary,” the law lords stated.

We also note that the Privy Council did not address the innocence or guilt of the four men convicted of the murder of Mr Clive “Lizard” Williams, who was reported missing in August 2011 and has not been seen since.

During the trial, the court was told that investigators had retrieved a text message from Mr Palmer’s phone saying that Mr Williams had been chopped so fine that his remains would never be found.

That bit of evidence must have been extremely painful to Mr Williams’ family who, without a body to bury, has not had any closure.

The discussions in this most sordid issue have largely ignored the fact that a human being, regardless of his antecedents, is dead. But that is the harsh reality of a society plagued by violence perpetrated by heartless men, and in some instances women, who hold the mistaken belief that a life of crime is beneficial to their well-being.

Changing that mindset and behaviour will not be easy. For, as we have pointed out before, violent crime didn’t overtake us overnight; nor will it go away tomorrow.

However, if we all stand united against this scourge, coupled with programmes to address social maladies such as poverty, ignorance, and the pervasive sense of “nutten nah gwaan”, we will see a significant reduction in criminal behaviour.

It is with that belief in mind that we are unapologetic supporters of Project STAR, the visionary social intervention initiative by the Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica and the police force that is already changing lives through such avenues as skills training, employment access, and people empowerment.