Lifeline for Buju
Juror’s breach of federal regulations opens door for mistrial, says lawyer
BY KARYL WALKER Online news editor [email protected]
Wednesday, October 17, 2012

THE newly appointed attorney for incarcerated reggae artiste Buju Banton says news that a female juror breached federal regulations will provide a loophole for the artiste to request a mistrial.
Banton was sentenced to 10 years in a Tampa, Florida court after being found guilty of drug-related charges in February last year.
But 20 months after he began serving his sentence, a female juror, Terri Wright, has reportedly admitted to a Florida-based media house that she violated federal regulations and researched certain aspects of the case online during the trial to have a better grasp of the issues when deliberation started.
Wright admitted to researching the Pinkerton rule — which makes a conspirator criminally liable for offences committed by a co-conspirator — and which the feds used to slap Buju with a gun charge, despite the fact that he had no connection to the gun.
Standard instructions for federal trials tell jurors not to attempt to research any fact, issue, or law related to a case, whether by discussion with others, by library or Internet research, or by any other means or source.
According to Buju’s attorney, Chukwe Lumumba, this breach has opened the door for his client to seek a mistrial.
“We are hopeful that this will help his case. We have every reason to believe that we have good support to argue for something to help Buju Banton,” Lumumba told the Jamaica Observer.
Banton, whose real name is Mark Myrie, will be heading back to the Tampa court for re-sentencing after an Appeals Court in Georgia rejected his motion for an appeal against his sentence on the basis that he was entrapped and that he was jailed for a long time before his case came to trial.
In fact, the court ruled that he should be sentenced to five more years as he was guilty of the initially dismissed gun charge.
But even though Banton faces an uphill struggle for his freedom, Lumumba said he will be seeking a retrial for his client on the basis of juror misconduct, but admitted that the process may take some time.
“We will be asking the court to set aside the verdict, and if the court does that, then the US attorney might appeal that decision and we will end up in the 11th Circuit Court of Appeal. If that happens, we will ask the court to release him on bond until the appeal process is complete,” Lumumba said.
Although the possibility exists that the court could make a ruling that the current sentence should stand, the attorney said based on the evidence so far, that scenario would be highly unlikely, and in the interest of justice, Banton may be given another day in court.

http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/Lifeline-for-Buju_12781345

Police on Sunday were hunting for a 42-year-old man who is accused of fatally shooting his ex-girlfriend and a celebrated reggae artist as the two were checking out of a Bronx motel along the New England Thruway.

Joseph Kernizan was allegedly waiting in the parking lot of the Holiday Motel shortly after 3 a.m. Saturday morning as Tracy Bennett and Wayne Hamilton were getting into a car, a law-enforcement official said.

Ms. Bennett, 38, and the suspect have two children and had been living together on Long Island, a law-enforcement official said. She had taken out an order of protection against Mr. Kernizan in August.

According to surveillance video recovered at the scene, Ms. Bennett and Mr. Hamilton were getting into her white sedan when the suspect blocked it with his car, the official said. Mr. Kernizan then allegedly got out of the car with a gun and fired two shots at the white sedan, the official said.

As Mr. Hamilton, 50, was trying to escape, the camera shows Mr. Kernizan allegedly chasing him down a small walkway firing several shots in his direction, striking him in the torso, the official said.

The camera then shows Mr. Kernizan returning to the parking lot and allegedly shooting Ms. Bennett once in the face, the official said. After she fell to the ground, he allegedly stood over her and continued shooting, striking her several times in the head, face, back and chest.

Mr. Kernizan then returned to Mr. Hamilton, who can be seen crawling away, and fired at him several more times, striking him in the head, before fleeing, the official said. He was last seen driving southbound on the thruway.

Police on Sunday described Mr. Kernizan as 5-foot-5 and 220 pounds. He has an extensive criminal record including robbery, assault and criminal firearms possession.

Mr. Hamilton, whose stage name is “Captain Barkey,” had been part of the Jamaican reggae scene since the late 1980s, said Ralston Barrett, who served as his manager from 1999 to 2002.

Mr. Hamilton, who lives in Milwaukee, had played a show in the city earlier that night.

He got his break in the late 1990s with the recording of “Go Go Wine,” which would go on to be a chart hit.

He followed with a handful of other hits including “Bun Fi Bun,” making him a mainstay on the circuit into the early part of the century.

“He was an all-in-all good guy, a very humorous guy,” Mr. Barrett said. “His music was kind of different. He did more light-hearted topics.”

“It’s unbelievable. I still can’t believe it,” Mr. Barrett said.
http://www.hmipix.com/police-explains-how-the-suspect-joseph-kernizan-aka-country-killed-the-victims-from-the-surveillance-camera-gruesome/