Dance-hall Disc Jockey and entrepreneur Adijia Palmer otherwise called Vybz Kartel who was convicted with his three accomplices for the killing of Clive Lizard Williams was this morning sentenced to life along with his three co-accused. This sentence is as strong as it gets for capital murder because of the moratorium on Capital punishment. This verdict will undoubtedly be seen as unjust by certain quarters of the Jamaican populace in light of the draconian and obviously arbitrary manner in which Senior Resident Magistrate Judith Pusey disposed of the Kern Spencer criminal case.
Governance is a Covenant between those Governed and those who Govern. Our Judicial System is an equal part of that Government structure. In fact our courts are generally looked at as the last place to get reasonable solutions to our everyday problems, criminal or civil. When the Courts loses that awe, that respect ‚the ensuing is chaos. It cannot be that some people are led to believe Prisons are only for the very poor and dispossessed. In order for the system to work effectively the people must buy into it. For objective Jamaicans at home or abroad ‚the strong sentence of these accused is a good first step in dealing with brutish murderers. However when it is juxtaposed with the Spencer verdict it leaves a bitter taste in our mouths.