BELIZE CITY, Thurs. July 16, 2020– The Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) issued an order on July 14 to allow the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), Cheryl-Lynn Vidal, to ask the Court of Appeal to set aside the verdict of the trial judge in the Calaney Flowers murder case.

In November of 2019, the Court of Appeal dismissed the DPP’s appeal after the attorney representing Calaney Flowers successfully argued that the DPP had no right to appeal an acquittal in cases where a full trial had taken place.

The CCJ, however, found an issue of statutory interpretation arising from arguments from both the Respondent and the Appellant, outlining in its release that “this appeal raised the sole issue of statutory interpretation and the correlation between two pieces of legislation: section 49 of the Court of Appeal Act, and section 65 of the Indictable Procedure Act.”

The CCJ made an order allowing the appeal and set aside the decision of the Court of Appeal. This means that Calaney Flowers could once again face trial for the murder of Lyndon Morrison.

In August 2012, Flowers allegedly used her vehicle to knock down Morrison, who was traveling with his pregnant girlfriend on a motorcycle, on Freetown Road.

The order laid down by the CCJ now empowers the DPP to ask the Court of Appeal to consider whether the verdict of the trial judge, Justice John “Troadio” Gonzalez, should be set aside.

We reached out to the Director of Public Prosecutions, Cheryl-Lynn Vidal, for comment on the recent developments in the case, but received no reply.