Winona man whose case became a landmark decision on racial bias in juries passes away

Curtis Flowers dies at 56

WINONA, Miss. (WCBI) – A man whose murder and death penalty were overturned in what became a landmark Supreme Court case for racial bias in jury selection has died.

Mississippi Today is reporting that Curtis Flowers was found dead today.

Flowers stood trial six times for the July 1996 murders of four people at Tardy Furniture in Winona.

Each of those trials either resulted in a hung jury or a guilty verdict that was later overturned on appeal.

His sixth trial resulted in a conviction and a death sentence, but in 2019 the U.S. Supreme Court overturned that verdict and sentence saying that the District Attorney Doug Evans intentionally struck Black people from the jury.

Flowers was released on bond and in 2020 Circuit Judge Joey Loper dismissed the capital murder charges against him with prejudice, stopping what would have been a seventh trial.

In all, Flowers spent 22 years in prison.

Mississippi Today says his death is an ongoing investigation.

Flowers was 56.