/https://specials-images.forbesimg.com/imageserve/5f52d6e08a47e780b6e8ec0f/0x0.jpg?cropX1=0&cropX2=3960&cropY1=0&cropY2=2640&w=1200&resize=1200,800&ssl=1 "Mississippi Murder Case Dismissed As Man Faced ‘Unprecedented’ Seventh Trial")
TOPLINE
In a case that focused national attention on inequities in the criminal justice system faced by Black defendants, the Mississippi Attorney General’s office decided Friday not to retry a man in a quadruple murder case for an “unprecedented” seventh time and a judge dismissed the case, according to multiple media reports.
The decades-old quadruple murder case against Curtis Flowers in Mississippi was dismissed September … [+]
ASSOCIATED PRESS
KEY FACTS
The Supreme Court overturned Curtis Flowers’ most recent conviction in 2019 after justices found Fifth Circuit District Attorney Doug Evans, who is white, racially discriminated during jury selection, according to the Associated Press; in January, Evans voluntarily recused himself from further prosecution of Flowers, turning the case over to the attorney general to decide on a possible seventh trial.
In a four-page motion, Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch outlined numerous problems in the state’s case against Flowers, who was convicted four times for four 1996 slayings that took place in a furniture store in the north Mississippi city of Winona; two trials ended in hung juries.
Flowers, a former death-row prisoner whose story was the subject of “In The Dark,” a popular investigative podcast, maintained his innocence, according to media reports; each of his conviction was overturned.
In the motion, Fitch noted that there is no key prosecution witness alive today and able to testify who “has not had multiple conflicting statements in the record;” the AG also noted that another witness who testified against Flowers in the past was later convicted of multiple counts of federal income tax fraud.
The only witness who offered direct evidence of guilt recanted his prior testimony admitting that he was lying when he said Flowers made a jailhouse confession to the murders, the motion said.
Fitch also said there were “alternative suspects with violent criminal histories as well as possible evidence” favorable to Flowers that was not previously considered.
crucial quote
“Given the facts and circumstances of this case, and based on the totality of circumstances, it is in the interest of justice that the state will not seek an unprecedented seventh trial of Mr. Flowers,” Fitch said in the motion. “The state of Mississippi moves to dismiss the indictment.”
key background
Unequal treatment of Black defendants in the U.S criminal justice system is a key focus of activists who have rocked the nation with sometimes violent protests since the televised death of George Floyd under the knee of a white Minneapolis police officer on Memorial Day. Henderson Hill, one of Flowers’ attorneys, said the dismissal, along with the Supreme Court decision in Flowers’ appeal last year, “vindicates one innocent Black American, a gentleman of immense character,” according to the Washington Post. He said it was part of a movement for “racial equity to replace white supremacy as our justice system’s organizing principle.” According to APM, which produced the “In The Dark” podcast, Evans, the district attorney, prosecuted Flowers for most of the 27 years he has served as the region’s chief attorney and though every one of the convictions he’d obtained in the case was reversed, he had never wavered in his resolve that he’d sent the right man to death row.
further reading
Charges dropped against man who was prosecuted six times for murder (Washington Post)
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