Curtis Flowers, who spent more than 22 years in prison and was once on Mississippi’s death row, has died at 56. The Supreme Court overturned his conviction and death sentence in 2019, ruling that the removal of Black prospective jurors deprived him of a fair trial. Flowers was tried six times, and Justice Brett Kavanaugh noted that the prosecutor struck 41 of 42 prospective Black jurors across those proceedings. Mississippi released Flowers in December 2019 and dropped the charges in September 2020. A judge later ordered the state to pay $500,000, the maximum allowed under state law for wrongful imprisonment; the excerpt gives no further deadline or compliance details.
TLDR: Flowers’ case went through six trials before the Supreme Court overturned his conviction and death sentence in 2019 over jury selection. Mississippi later dropped the charges, and a judge ordered the state to pay $500,000 for his wrongful imprisonment.
Curtis Flowers, whose conviction and death sentence were thrown out by the U.S. Supreme Court, has died at 56. His 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.
Flowers spent more than 22 years in prison, including time on Mississippi’s death row. The Supreme Court’s 2019 ruling marked a turning point in a case that had gone through six trials over more than two decades. Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote that the exclusion of Black prospective jurors deprived Flowers of a fair trial.
The ruling’s stated rationale was direct: jury selection that removed Black prospective jurors had denied Flowers a fair trial. In a 7-2 decision, the court examined the record of repeated jury selection and concluded that the constitutional guarantee of a fair trial could not be separated from how jurors were chosen. The decision focused on the process used to select jurors, not on resolving who committed the killings. Its conclusion overturned the conviction from Flowers’ sixth trial and put the repeated jury selections at the center of the case’s history.
Flowers was 26 when he was arrested several months after four people were shot and killed inside a furniture store in Winona, Mississippi, in July 1996. Prosecutors described him as a disgruntled former employee who sought revenge against the store’s owner after she fired him and withheld most of his pay to cover merchandise he had damaged. Nearly $300 was reported missing after the killings.
The case proceeded through six trials. Three convictions were overturned, including one in which a prosecutor improperly excluded African Americans from the jury. A second-trial judge chided District Attorney Doug Evans for striking a juror based on race. Two other trials ended without unanimous verdicts. The repeated proceedings meant that the case returned to court again and again, while Flowers remained imprisoned through years of appeals and new trials.
In the sixth trial, held in 2010, Flowers was sentenced to death. The jury had 11 white members and one Black member after Evans struck five Black prospective jurors. Kavanaugh wrote that the records showed what he called a “relentless, determined effort” to remove Black people from the jury, with the aim of an all-white jury. Across the six trials, Evans had removed 41 of 42 prospective Black jurors, Kavanaugh noted. Those numbers formed part of the record the justices considered when they reviewed the case.
The Supreme Court ruling did not immediately release Flowers. He remained in prison for six months because he was still under indictment. A judge set bond, and Flowers was released in December 2019. Mississippi dropped the charges in September 2020. The ruling therefore ended the conviction that had sent him to death row, but his release and the end of the prosecution came later, through separate steps.
Flowers later spoke of the nearly 23 years he had spent in prison and credited his family for standing by him. His legal team, which represented him for more than two decades, said it had come to regard him as both a client and a friend. The team recalled him at home with his parents, singing in church, and fishing at a local pond, as well as enduring time on death row. Those memories described a life beyond the courtroom, and the family support that remained with him during his imprisonment.
In 2021, Flowers filed a lawsuit against Evans and three investigators who had worked with the district attorney. The suit alleged misconduct, including pressuring witnesses to make false claims placing Flowers at particular locations on the day of the murders and ignoring other possible suspects. Those allegations were claims in the lawsuit; the account does not report an outcome. The suit was a separate effort from the criminal case and came after Mississippi had dropped the charges.
A judge ordered Mississippi to pay Flowers $500,000 for wrongful imprisonment. That was the maximum permitted under a state law allowing up to $50,000 for each year of wrongful imprisonment, for as many as 10 years. The payment was a concrete cost to the state, while the long sequence of trials, appeals, and legal proceedings shows how much time the case consumed. The account provides no further details about paperwork, compliance requirements, or deadlines tied to the payment. It also does not describe any additional enforcement step connected to the order.
Flowers’ case drew national attention to the role of race in jury selection and the duty to provide a fair trial. Evans retired in 2023 after more than 30 years as district attorney. The account does not identify a new policy, upcoming deadline, or further oversight step in the case. The Supreme Court’s ruling, the dismissal of charges, and the compensation order are the recorded milestones; no additional next step is specified.
Deborah Cole serves as a Senior Correspondent for Just Right News, where she spearheads the network’s coverage of Housing, Infrastructure, and Mobility. With a career defined by a commitment to rigorous reporting and a focus on the fundamental pillars of American community life, Deborah brings a principled perspective to the complex issues that dictate how and where we live. Her work is grounded in the belief that sound policy, fiscal responsibility, and respect for private property are the essential foundations of a prosperous society.
Originally from Boston, Massachusetts, Deborah’s upbringing in one of the nation’s oldest and most historically significant cities deeply influenced her professional trajectory. Growing up amidst the architectural legacy and dense urban planning of New England, she developed an early appreciation for the importance of durable infrastructure and the role of local tradition in shaping neighborhoods. Her perspective is informed by the classic American values of her hometown—hard work, community cohesion, and a healthy skepticism of top-down bureaucratic mandates that often overlook the unique needs of individual citizens.
Today, Deborah operates from her base in Austin, Texas, a city that serves as a primary laboratory for her reporting. Austin’s rapid expansion and its status as a hub for innovation and migration provide her with a front-row seat to the most pressing challenges in modern infrastructure and housing. From the Lone Star State, she chronicles the tensions between rapid growth and the preservation of the American Dream, often highlighting how market-driven solutions and deregulation can address the housing shortages that plague many of the country’s metropolitan areas.
At Just Right News, Deborah is perhaps best known for her signature feature series, “Where We Live.” Through this platform, she explores the intersection of public policy and private life, moving beyond mere statistics to tell the stories of families, small business owners, and local developers. Her reporting frequently highlights the importance of mobility—not just in terms of transportation and transit, but as a vehicle for economic opportunity and social stability. She remains a staunch advocate for the taxpayer, consistently scrutinizing government spending on large-scale projects and advocating for transparency in how infrastructure dollars are allocated.
Deborah’s beat is more than just a collection of policy topics; it is an investigation into the physical and legal structures that allow families to flourish. Whether she is reporting on the impact of zoning laws on suburban development or the necessity of maintaining the nation’s highway systems, her work is characterized by a dedication to the facts and a respect for the constitutional principles that protect the rights of homeowners.
As a Senior Correspondent, Deborah Cole continues to be a vital voice for Just Right News, providing the audience with the clarity and context needed to navigate an ever-changing landscape. Her reporting ensures that the values of individual liberty and local sovereignty remain at the forefront of the national conversation regarding the future of our cities and towns. Through her tireless efforts, she remains committed to informing the public on the issues that hit closest to home.