Banton, a four-time Grammy nominee who rose from the slums
of Kingston to success in the 1990s, was arrested on drug charges in December
and a Florida jury is deliberating whether he conspired to buy cocaine from an
undercover police officer. The 12-person panel reconvenes Monday in Tampa
federal court. In the Jamaican capital, some people are dissecting every detail
of Banton's case, a few even comparing him to the late reggae legend Bob
Marley. "I've been following it close because Buju is big in Jamaica, like
a Bob Marley. Way I see it, they need to free the man cause they don't have any
concrete evidence against him," Charles Barrett, a resident of the
capital, said Sunday. For others the case is more of a curiosity, a media-fed
sensation that distracts from weightier news.
