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Curtis Flowers Dies at 56 Years After Exoneration in Mississippi Capital Murder Case
Just the facts
Flowers was originally charged in connection with the 1996 deaths of four people at a furniture store in Winona, Mississippi. Prosecutor Doug Evans tried Flowers six times for the same offense, resulting in multiple hung juries and overturned convictions. In 2019, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 7-2 that the prosecution had unconstitutionally excluded Black jurors, leading Mississippi authorities to drop all charges in 2020. Flowers later settled a civil suit with the state before his death.
Why this is news
Curtis Flowers, a Black man who spent over 22 years in Mississippi prisons and faced death row across six separate trials, died at the age of 56. His convictions were ultimately overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2019.
Sources
This summary is compiled strictly from the original reporting below.