Curtis Flowers, a Mississippi man who spent more than 22 years in prison—including 23 years on death row—after being tried six times for the same 1996 quadruple murder, has died at age 56. Flowers’ family confirmed his death Wednesday at his home in Winona, Mississippi, according to attorney Rob McDuff, who was part of his legal team. The cause of death was not disclosed.
Supreme Court overturns conviction in 2019
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled 7-2 in 2019 that Flowers’ sixth trial violated his constitutional rights by excluding Black jurors. Justice Brett Kavanaugh, writing for the majority, stated that District Attorney Doug Evans had struck Black prospective jurors in a pattern of racial discrimination. The high court vacated Flowers’ conviction and death sentence, leading to his release on bond in December 2019 after six additional months in custody. Mississippi formally dropped all charges against Flowers in September 2020.
Case background and legal history
Flowers, then 26, was arrested in January 1997 in Texas, where he had moved after briefly working at Tardy Furniture in Winona, Mississippi. He was fired from the furniture store after three days and had no prior criminal record. Four people—store owner Bertha Tardy, bookkeeper Carmen Rigby, delivery man Robert Golden, and 16-year-old customer Derrick Stewart—were fatally shot execution-style on July 16, 1996. Approximately $300 was reported missing from the store after the killings. The murder weapon was never recovered, and no DNA or fingerprints linked Flowers to the crime.
Flowers was tried six times between 1997 and 2010. His first three convictions were overturned on appeal due to prosecutorial misconduct and jury discrimination. Two subsequent trials ended in mistrials. In the sixth trial in 2010, Flowers was convicted by an all-white jury and sentenced to death. The jury included 11 white jurors and one Black juror after Evans struck five Black prospective jurors.
Aftermath and public response
Flowers remained in prison for six months after the Supreme Court’s decision before being released on bond. In a statement released after his exoneration, Flowers said, “Today, I am finally free from the injustice that left me locked in a box for nearly twenty three years. 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.”
Legal advocates, including McDuff, have described Flowers’ case as unprecedented in U.S. legal history due to the repeated retrials by the same prosecutor. Investigative reporting by American Public Media’s In the Dark podcast highlighted racial disparities in jury selection and questioned the strength of the evidence against Flowers. The case has been cited in broader discussions about racial bias in the criminal justice system and the use of peremptory challenges in jury selection.