Vybz Kartel Was Just Freed From Jail, but Why Was He There in the First Place?

After a decade in jail, Jamaican dance hall artist Vybz Kartel has been released. The musician, whose real name is Adidja Palmer, was released after his conviction was overturned by a U.K. judge in March of this year.

Following the news that he had been released from prison, many wanted to learn more about why he had been locked up to begin with. Here's what we know about why he was sent to jail, and about why his conviction was overturned.

Vybz Kartel went to jail after he was accused of killing Clive "Lizard" Williams in Jamaica. The musician had maintained his innocence following the accusation and even after he was sentenced. During his trial, prosecutors alleged that Williams and another man, Lamar Chow, were given two unlicensed firearms from Kartel for safekeeping. When they failed to return the weapons, they were summoned to his house in August of 2011.

Chow claimed that the last thing he remembers is being attacked and seeing Williams lying motionless on the ground. The house burned down a few days later, and Williams's body has never been found. Kartel was accused alongside Shawn Campbell, Kahira Jones and Andre St John, and all of them maintained their innocence but were convicted anyway. Kartel was sentenced to a minimum of 35 years in prison.

Kartel has been appealing his conviction ever since he was jailed, and his defense team has argued that a juror who was accused of trying to bribe other members of the jury should have been thrown off the trial. A court in London agreed and ruled in March of 2024 that the decision to leave that juror on the trial was "fatal to the safety of the convictions which followed" and "an infringement of the [defendants'] fundamental right to a fair hearing."

After the British court's ruling, Jamaica's court of appeals had to determine whether it was worth the effort to try Kartel again for the murder. Justice Marva McDonald-Bishop, one of the three judges on the Court of Appeals, said that they had weighed the "egregious nature and seriousness of the offence" against the passage of time, the lack of access to witnesses, and the immense cost of a retrial.

Ultimately, they decided against another trial, adding that Kartel was in "declining health" and that a new trial would have an impact on his mental and physical well-being.

"We conclude that the interests of justice do not require a new trial," she concluded.

In spite of a decade of imprisonment, Kartel remains one of the most popular artists in the dancehall space, and his infamy has only grown because of his high profile trial. Now, he'll be returning to a scene that has eagerly anticipated his comeback, although his health may not allow that comeback to be as full-throated as he might have hoped.