Jamaican dancehall star Vybz Kartel’s 2014 guilty verdict has been overturned by a London appeals court.
Kartel and three others were convicted of the 2011 killing of an associate named Clive “Lizard” Williams. The star was sentenced to 32 years in prison for the crime.
The trial was allowed to continue even though it was revealed that one of the jurors had attempted to bribe other jurors by offering 500,000 Jamaican dollars (roughly $3,200 US) to acquit the defendant.
The juror was allowed to remain on the jury.
“There should have been no question of allowing Juror X to continue to serve on the jury,” the appeals court wrote. “Allowing Juror X to continue to serve on the jury is fatal to the safety of the convictions which followed. This was an infringement of the defendants’ fundamental right to a fair hearing by an independent and impartial court.”
Lizard’s body was never found.
