/Black jurors illegally excluded in death row inmate Curtis Flowers’ sixth trial, Supreme Court rules

Black jurors illegally excluded in death row inmate Curtis Flowers’ sixth trial, Supreme Court rules

Flowers’ conviction was overturned by 7-2 rulings of justice In 2010, a jury found Flowers guilty of quadruple murder in Winona. Only one of the 12 jurors in that trial was black. The prosecutor had five potential black jurors. The jury found Flowers, a black man, guilty of the murders at Tardy Furniture in Winona. Flowers had previously worked briefly at the store before the murders. Justices heard oral arguments in March on whether Evans had violated Batson, a 1986 Supreme Court decision that stated that no state can discriminate on race basis during jury selection in criminal cases. Evans was accused of striking potential jurors because he worked with or was related to the Flowers family. Justice Brett Kavanaugh, however, stated that Evans tried to strike all 36 potential jurors in those previous prosecutions. Kavanaugh stated that Evans’s intentions in the sixth trial were influenced by the results of previous trials. Evans did not return a reporter’s phone call on Friday morning. The Northern Half of the State’s Prosecutor has represented seven counties since 1992. He previously indicated that he may prosecute Flowers for a seventh consecutive time. He is running for re-election in the fall but has no opponents. After the decision, attorneys for Flowers released a statement calling the seventh trial “unprecedented and completely unwarranted.” Kavanaugh was joined by six other justices. Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch were dissidents. Thomas wrote in his dissent, “The only obvious errors in this case were committed by the majority.” The Court confirms that this case should not have been taken. It almost completely ignores–and certainly doesn’t refute–the State’s race-neutral reasons for striking (Carolyn) Wright and four other potential jurors. Flowers has spent the majority of his life in death row at Mississippi State Penitentiary, Parchman, since 1997 when he was first convicted. Evans prosecuted all six Flowers cases and was convicted in three of them. All three cases were dismissed, with two being for misconduct in prosecutorial. In two other trials, jurors failed to reach unanimous verdicts. Podcast In the Dark discovered that Evans struck black potential jurors at 4.4 times the rate he struck white jurors over the period of 15 years. Evans is yet to decide if he will bring Flowers back to trial. Justices asked the state whether the attorney general could have taken the case. The Mississippi law states that the attorney general cannot intervene in a case unless the district attorney requests it. Friday’s statement by Attorney General Jim Hood affirmed the duty of the district attorney to reevaluate the case. Hood stated that if the Court decides to retry the case then Hood is confident that the Court will follow his guidance._x000D