Curtis Flowers, a Black man whose death sentence was tossed by Supreme Court, dies in Mississippi

Rogelio V. Solis/AP/FILE

Curtis Flowers, a Black man who spent more than 22 years in prison and was on death row in Mississippi before the US Supreme Court threw out his conviction and death sentence, has died. He was 56.

Flowers’ family confirmed that he died Wednesday at his home in Mississippi, attorney Rob McDuff told The Associated Press on Thursday.

No cause of death was given, said McDuff, who was part of Flowers’ legal team.

Flowers was 26 when he was arrested several months after the July 1996 shooting deaths of four people inside a Winona, Mississippi, furniture store.

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Mississippi drops case against Curtis Flowers after he was tried 6 times on murder charges

At the time, prosecutors described him as a disgruntled former employee who sought revenge against the store’s owner because she fired him and withheld most of his pay to cover the cost of merchandise he damaged. Nearly $300 was found missing after the killings.

Flowers was tried in the killings six times. Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote in the high court’s 7-2 decision in 2019 that the removal of Black prospective jurors deprived Flowers of a fair trial.

During the sixth trial in 2010, Flowers was sentenced to death . Eleven White jurors and one Black juror considered the case after District Attorney Doug Evans struck five Black prospective jurors.

Flowers remained in prison for six months after the Supreme Court ruling because he was still under indictment. He finally was released in December 2019 after a judge set bond.

Mississippi dropped charges against Flowers in September 2020.

“Today, I am finally free from the injustice that left me locked in a box for nearly 23 years,” Flowers said in a statement. “I’ve been asked if I ever thought this day would come. I have been blessed with a family that never gave up on me and with them by my side, I knew it would.”

The legal team that represented Flowers for more than two decades said Thursday in a release that each member feels “privileged to have called him a client.”

“Later, in the years after his release and exoneration, we felt equally honored to call him a friend,” the legal team said. “No matter where he was – on death row, at home on his parents’ porch with his feet up, singing in church, or fishing in a local pond – Curtis shared his light.”

The trials stretched back more than 20 years. The records showed Evans’ “relentless, determined effort to rid the jury of” Black individuals, with the goal of an all-White jury, Kavanaugh wrote.

In the earlier trials, three convictions were tossed out, including one when the prosecutor improperly excluded African Americans from the jury. In the second trial, the judge chided Evans for striking a juror based on race. Two other trials ended when jurors couldn’t reach unanimous verdicts.

Kavanaugh noted that Evans had removed 41 of the 42 prospective Black jurors over the six trials.

Flowers filed a lawsuit in 2021 against Evans and three investigators who worked with the district attorney. The suit claimed Evans and the investigators engaged in misconduct, including “pressuring witnesses to fabricate claims about seeing Mr. Flowers in particular locations on the day of the murders” and ignoring other possible suspects.

Earlier that year, a judge ordered the state of Mississippi to pay Flowers $500,000 for wrongful imprisonment – the maximum under a state law that allows up to $50,000 a year for 10 years.

Evans retired in 2023 after more than 30 years as district attorney. His jury selection tactics had been scrutinized for years.

Flowers’ name is “etched into US Supreme Court jurisprudence – about what it means to fight for a fair trial free from racial bias in the selection of jurors,” Flowers’ legal team said. “And also for that, but for so many other reasons, his name is etched into our memories, too – professional and personal. We will miss him.”

Rogelio V. Solis/美联社/档案照片

柯蒂斯·弗劳尔斯（Curtis Flowers）是一名黑人，曾在密西西比州监狱服刑超过22年，并被判处死刑，后经美国最高法院推翻定罪和死刑判决，他已去世，享年56岁。

弗劳尔斯的家人证实，他于周三在密西西比州的家中去世。律师罗布·麦克杜夫周四告诉美联社。

麦克杜夫是弗劳尔斯法律团队的成员，他表示，死因尚未公布。

1996 年 7 月，密西西比州威诺纳一家家具店发生枪击案，造成四人死亡。几个月后，26 岁的弗劳尔斯被捕。

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在柯蒂斯·弗劳尔斯因谋杀罪被审判六次后，密西西比州撤销了对他的指控。

当时，检方称他是一名心怀不满的前雇员，因被店主解雇并扣留了大部分工资以弥补他损坏商品的损失，故对店主进行报复。案发后，近300美元不翼而飞。

弗劳尔斯因这起谋杀案受审六次。2019年，最高法院以7比2的投票结果裁定弗劳尔斯胜诉，大法官布雷特·卡瓦诺在裁决书中写道，排除黑人候选陪审员剥夺了弗劳尔斯获得公正审判的权利。

在2010年的第六次审判中，弗劳尔斯被判处死刑。在地区检察官道格·埃文斯剔除五名黑人候选陪审员后，由11名白人陪审员和1名黑人陪审员组成陪审团审议此案。

最高法院裁决后，弗劳尔斯仍被关押了六个月，因为他当时仍处于起诉状态。2019年12月，在法官设定保释金后，他最终获释。

2020年9月，密西西比州撤销了对弗劳尔斯的指控。

“今天，我终于摆脱了长达近23年的不公，”弗劳尔斯在一份声明中说道。“有人问我是否想过这一天会到来。我很幸运，拥有一个从未放弃我的家庭，有他们在我身边，我知道这一天终会到来。”

为弗劳尔斯提供法律服务超过二十年的法律团队周四在一份声明中表示，每位成员都“感到荣幸能称他为客户”。

“后来，在他获释和被宣告无罪后的几年里，我们同样感到荣幸能称他为朋友，”律师团队表示。“无论他身在何处——死囚牢房、父母家门廊上翘着二郎腿、在教堂里唱歌，还是在当地的池塘里钓鱼——柯蒂斯都散发着他的光芒。”

审判可以追溯到20多年前。卡瓦诺写道，记录显示埃文斯“不懈地、坚定地努力清除陪审团中的”黑人成员，其目标是组成一个全白人陪审团。

在之前的审判中，三项定罪被推翻，其中一项是因为检察官不当排除非裔美国人担任陪审员。在第二次审判中，法官斥责埃文斯因种族原因剔除一名陪审员。另有两起审判因陪审团无法达成一致意见而终止。

卡瓦诺指出，在六次审判中，埃文斯剔除了 42 名黑人候选陪审员中的 41 名。

2021年，弗劳尔斯对埃文斯和三名与地方检察官合作的调查人员提起诉讼。诉讼称，埃文斯和这些调查人员存在不当行为，包括“胁迫证人捏造在谋杀案当天看到弗劳尔斯先生出现在特定地点的证词”，以及忽略其他可能的嫌疑人。

同年早些时候，一名法官下令密西西比州向弗劳尔斯支付 50 万美元的冤狱赔偿金——这是该州法律规定的最高赔偿额，该法律允许每年最多赔偿 5 万美元，为期 10 年。

埃文斯在担任地区检察官30多年后于2023年退休。多年来，他的陪审团遴选策略一直备受关注。

弗劳尔斯的法律团队表示：“弗劳尔斯的名字已深深镌刻在美国最高法院的判例法中——它诠释了争取公正审判、消除陪审员遴选过程中种族偏见的意义。不仅如此，还有其他诸多原因，他的名字也深深铭刻在我们心中——无论是在职业生涯中还是在个人生活中。我们将永远怀念他。”