Attorneys representing Vybz Kartel and his co-accused today urged the Court of Appeal to draw a line in the sand, and reject the State’s attempt to retry them for the 2011 murder of Clive “Lizard” Williams.
The impassioned plea was made by John Clarke on day two of the retrial hearing.
Clarke, who represents Kahira Jones, urged the three judges to give life to the meaning of the Jamaican Charter of Fundamental Rights and Freedoms, and set the men free.
Nora Gaye Banton reports.
John Clarke told the Court of Appeal that the Charter of Rights calls for a more rigorous enforcement and enhancement of human rights in Jamaica.
He told Justices McDonald Bishop, Williams, and Fraser that no justice can be done by sending Kartel, Shawn Storm, Andre St. John, and Kahira Jones back to the Home Circuit Court to again stand trial for a matter that’s more than a decade old.
He asked the Justices to use the case to draw a line in the sand.
According to Clarke, such a line would serve as a warning to the Parliament and the Executive arms of the government that the rights of accused persons must be taken seriously.
The attorney maintained that retrying the men after more than a decade had passed would not serve the interests of justice.
He told the court it would be an economic and emotional burden on the men.
Clarke reminded the Court of Appeal that the Privy Council had already found that their constitutional rights were breached.
He says subjecting them to a new trial would only further breach those rights.
Clarke asked the Court to set down a maximum number of years after which the State should not be permitted to retry accused persons.
When asked how resource constraints may influence unfortunate delays in criminal matters, Clarke pressed on. He urged the court to use the Kartel matter to set down a marker.
Clarke told the judges that sending Kartel and his co-accused to face another trial may also affect the rights of other criminal defendants.
He told the court that there were already citizens waiting on the trial list, trying to clear their names.
According to Clarke, Kartel’s case being sent back would mean it would push other matters further back on the list.
This, he says, would be an injustice to those who have been waiting for justice.
“That is not the country we want to live in,” he told the judges.
The decade-old legal saga is again before the local Court of Appeal after the UK-based Privy Council quashed the men’s 2014 murder convictions and sent the matter back to the appellate tribunal to determine if they should be re-tried for the murder.
The hearing will continue tomorrow when Clarke is expected to call on affidavit evidence of the accused men in arguing against a re-trial.
The Crown is expected to open its arguments for a re-trial on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, speaking to journalists outside the Court of Appeal, John Clarke, warned that if the justice system can re-try Kartel after a decade, then all poor Jamaicans would be at the mercy of an unjust system.
John Clarke, attorney at law.
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