Inmate tried 6 times in killings granted freedom
WINONA, Miss. — A Mississippi man whose murder conviction was overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court for racial bias was granted his freedom for the first time in 23 years Monday while prosecutors decide whether to retry him for a seventh time.
A judge set a bond of $250,000 for Curtis Flowers, but told him he will have to wear an electronic monitor. Flowers was convicted four times for a quadruple slaying in 1996; two other trials ended in a mistrial. All four convictions were overturned, but Flowers has remained in jail because the original murder indictment is still active.
Circuit Judge Joseph Loper said it was “troubling” that prosecutors have not responded to a defense motion to drop the charges against Flowers. He said if prosecutors do not respond, “the state will reap the whirlwind” from him.
Assistant District Attorney William Hopper left the courtroom without speaking to news reporters. Earlier, he declined to comment when asked if the District Attorney’s Office would try Flowers a seventh time.
Flowers’ attorney Rob McDuff said after the hearing that a person who wanted to remain anonymous was putting up the standard 10%, or $250,000, required for Flowers’ release.
Supporters who were among the more than 150 people packing the wooden pews of the 1970sera courtroom hugged Flowers after the judge announced his decision. His father, Archie Lee Flowers, choked back tears.
The elder Flowers said he frequently visited his son in prison, where they sang and prayed together. He said he has always believed in his son’s innocence.
During his sixth trial in 2010, Flowers was sentenced to death. The U.S. Supreme Court overturned that conviction in June, finding that prosecutors had shown an unconstitutional pattern of excluding African American jurors in the trials of Flowers, who is black.
After the Supreme Court ruling, Flowers was moved off death row at the Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman and taken to a regional jail in the central Mississippi town of Louisville.
“This case is unprecedented in the history of the American legal system,” McDuff told the judge during Monday’s hearing. He said Flowers has spent 23 years in prison “without a lawful conviction to justify his incarceration” and has an “exemplary” record of good behavior in prison.
Hopper had asked the judge to deny bond. He cited several examples of evidence that he said pointed to Flowers’ guilt.
Four people were shot to death on July 16, 1996, in the Tardy Furniture store in the north Mississippi town of Winona. They were owner Bertha Tardy, 59, and three employees: 45yearold Carmen Rigby, 42yearold Robert Golden and 16yearold Derrick “Bobo” Stewart.
In midNovember, four black voters and a branch of the NAACP filed a federal lawsuit asking a judge to permanently order District Attorney Doug Evans and his assistants to stop using peremptory challenges to remove African American residents as potential jurors because of their race.