Curtis Flowers, Man Tried Six Times for Mississippi Murders, Dies at 56

Curtis Flowers, a Mississippi man whose name became synonymous with prosecutorial misconduct and racial bias after he was tried six times for the same four murders, has died. He was 56.

Flowers passed away on Wednesday at his home in Mississippi, according to his family. Attorney Rob McDuff, who was part of Flowers’ legal team, confirmed the death to The Associated Press on Thursday but did not disclose a cause.

Flowers’ ordeal began in July 1996 in Winona, Mississippi, when the owner of Tardy Furniture, a bookkeeper, a delivery driver, and a 16-year-old employee were shot execution-style inside the store. Flowers had briefly worked at the furniture store that summer but was fired after missing three days of work. Although police questioned him following the killings, they did not immediately arrest him. Flowers had relocated to Texas to live with his sister by the time he was taken into custody in January 1997.

Prosecuted by District Attorney Doug Evans, Flowers faced an unprecedented legal battle. McDuff previously described the case as without precedent in American legal history. In the first trial, an all-White jury convicted Flowers after just one hour of deliberation, sentencing the 27-year-old to death. That conviction was later overturned on appeal due to evidence misrepresentation and discriminatory jury selection, leading to five additional trials before the same prosecutor.

No murder weapon was ever recovered, and there was no DNA or fingerprint evidence linking Flowers to the crimes. Over the ensuing years, three more convictions were overturned, and two mistrials were declared.

Evans finally secured a conviction in 2010, resulting in Flowers being returned to death row. However, investigative reporters from American Public Media’s podcast “In the Dark” examined the case and found that key witnesses, including one who claimed Flowers had confessed, recanted their statements. The podcast also analyzed decades of court records, revealing that Evans had systematically excluded Black jurors at disproportionate rates. In total, 61 of the 72 jurors across Flowers’ trials were White, and all 61 voted for conviction.

In 2019, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Evans and the state of Mississippi had violated Flowers’ constitutional rights. Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote that there was a “relentless, determined effort to rid the jury of Black individuals,” and the court overturned the conviction once again. Six months later, Flowers was released on bail, ending 23 years behind bars.

“And I’m telling you, I felt like I was floating. I was just ready to go,” Flowers told CBS News in a 2021 interview. McDuff has not yet responded to inquiries regarding Flowers’ passing, and CBS News is awaiting a statement from the coroner.