Appeal Court dismisses prison manslaughter case

The Court of Appeal has dismissed an appeal by Raymond Flowers who was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to 18 years imprisonment for the death of prison inmate Marcus Melendez in March of 1997. Flowers was accused of assisting Julian Bush suffocate and then hang Melendez with a sheet in their joint prison cell. Bush and several other prisoners, including Melendez had escaped from the prison on the ninth of March weekend but were apprehended after Melendez was caught and told authorities where to locate the others. Flowers had appealed the sentence but the court of appeal ruled that in fact Flowers should have been convicted of murder because he assisted Bush, or acquitted on the basis that he was asleep at the time. The Court of Appeal ruled that the trial judge erred in allowing the jury to consider a manslaughter conviction.