Curtis Flowers, Mississippi Man Tried Six Times for Same Crime, Dies at 56
Curtis Flowers, who spent 23 years in prison after six trials for the same murders, has died at 56. Explore the history of this landmark legal case.
POLICY WIRE — Winona, Mississippi — Curtis Flowers, a Mississippi man whose legal saga became a symbol of systemic injustice after he was tried six times for the same quadruple homicide, has passed away at age 56.
Attorney Rob McDuff, a member of Flowers’ legal defense team, confirmed that Flowers died at his Mississippi home on Wednesday. No official cause of death has been disclosed.
The legal ordeal originated in July 1996, when four individuals—the owner of Tardy Furniture, a bookkeeper, a delivery driver, and a 16-year-old—were killed execution-style in Winona. Flowers, who had worked at the store for only three days before stopping his shifts, was arrested in Texas in January 1997 despite having no prior criminal record.
McDuff has previously characterized the case as unprecedented within the American legal framework. The prosecution faced significant scrutiny because the murder weapon was never recovered, and investigators found no DNA or fingerprint evidence connecting Flowers to the scene.
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District Attorney Doug Evans oversaw all six trials. The first three convictions were overturned due to the prosecutor’s misrepresentation of evidence and discriminatory jury selection practices. In total, Flowers faced four overturned convictions and two mistrials.
A 2010 conviction finally resulted in a death sentence, but the case gained national attention after the podcast In the Dark uncovered that key witnesses had recanted their testimony. Furthermore, data analysis revealed that Evans had consistently excluded Black citizens from jury pools; across the six trials, 61 of the 72 jurors were White, and all 61 voted to convict.
In 2019, the U.S. Supreme Court intervened, with Justice Brett Kavanaugh noting a relentless, determined effort by the state to remove Black individuals from the jury. Flowers was released on bail six months later, marking his first time out of custody in 23 years.
Reporting by Policy-Wire (PW)
