Vybz Kartel has a reason to celebrate, as a judge in Jamaica has overturned his long-standing murder conviction.
According to the BBC, the appeal has been made official as of Thursday (March 14) after a Privy Council in London concluded that one of the jurors in the case had been bribed, and as such, should not have been on his jury.
A high court in Jamaica has yet to decide whether the dancehall legend’s case will be tried again, but as of this writing, the dancehall superstar has been freed pending the outcome of the retrial.
Over the summer, Vybz Kartel was granted the right to go before the Privy Council, though he was originally scheduled to go sometime next month.
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He was heard alongside his co-defendants Shawn Storm, Kahira Jones and Andre St. John, who all were given life sentences alongside Vybz in 2014 for the murder of promoter Clive “Lizard” Williams.
The privy council, much like the United States Supreme Court, is the highest court in the United Kingdom, which governs Great Britain, Ireland, Wales, Scotland, and all the commonwealth countries. If the privy council had denied Vybz Kartel’s bid for freedom, he would have remained in prison under a sentence of life imprisonment with a minimum of 32 and a half years.
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Last February, Vybz Kartel petitioned to go before the privy council to plead his case, but that petition was denied, according to LoopNews.
Vybz Kartel has had a terrible time in prison since he was sentenced ten years ago — so much so, in fact, that his family pleaded for a medical intervention back in May.
Lisa Evers of Fox 5 News spoke to the Jamaican artist’s attorney, Isat Buchanan, who revealed the terrible news.
“Mr. Palmer’s illness is actually life-threatening,” he told the longtime New York journalist. “His neck was swollen, if you think of a shirt that is about 18.5 inches in the neck area, you couldn’t close the collar on his neck and that’s how bad it is in this moment.”
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He continued: “His face is actually swollen. And one other thing. He always wears glasses; in this condition, that causes his eyes to protrude.”
The “protruding eyes,” per Buchanan’s testimony, are a symptom of Graves disease, which according to the National Institute of Health, is an autoimmune disorder triggered by an overactive thyroid; a condition from which Missy Elliott also suffers. It can also be fatal if left untreated.
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