Curtis Flowers, Mississippi death row man, dies at 56

Summarised from 2 outlets · Updated 8 Oct, 20:19 · Archive

Curtis Flowers, whose death sentence was overturned by the US Supreme Court, has died in Mississippi aged 56.

Curtis Flowers, a Black man from Mississippi, has died at his home on Wednesday, aged 56. His attorney Rob McDuff confirmed the death to the Associated Press on Thursday. No cause of death was given.

Flowers was arrested in January 1997, several months after the July 1996 shooting deaths of four people inside a furniture store in Winona, Mississippi. Prosecutors said he was a disgruntled former employee. The murder weapon was never found, and there was no DNA or fingerprints linking him to the crime.

Flowers was tried six times for the same killings by the same prosecutor. In his sixth trial in 2010, he was sentenced to death by a jury of eleven white jurors and one Black juror, after the prosecutor struck five Black prospective jurors. The US Supreme Court ruled 7-2 in 2019 that this removal of Black prospective jurors had deprived Flowers of a fair trial. He remained in prison for six months after the ruling before being released in December 2019. Mississippi dropped all charges against him in September 2020.

Curtis Flowers, Mississippi death row man, dies at 56 — Image: Independent World

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How it is being reported

Curtis Flowers, Mississippi man tried for same killings 6 times, dies at 56One of Curtis Flowers' attorneys called his case "unprecedented in the history of the American legal system."CBS News · 8 Oct, 19:56
Curtis Flowers, a Black man whose death sentence was tossed by Supreme Court, dies in MississippiCurtis Flowers, a Black man who spent more than 22 years in prison and was on death row in Mississippi before the U.S. Supreme Court threw out his conviction and death sentence, has diedIndependent World · 8 Oct, 18:05

In this story: Curtis Flowers · Rob McDuff · Mississippi · Winona, Mississippi · US Supreme Court · Justice Brett Kavanaugh

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