PREVIOUS POST:
PUBLISHER'S NOTE: (Italics): See previous post of this Blog at the link below: Apart from the racially motivated jury selection process, the case involves jailhouse witness testimony - oh so reliable - the type of evidence unscrupulous prosecutors like to drum up when they have no real evidence against the defendant.
"BACKGROUND: See earlier post of this Blog (dated August 30, 2019) at the link below, under the heading 'Extraordinary Development.'Curtis Flowers: Mississippi: Extraordinary Development: As reporter Mihit Zaveri reported in yesterday's New York Times: "The Mississippi Supreme Court on Thursday threw out the murder conviction of Curtis Flowers, a black man who has been tried six times for the same crimes, two months after the United States Supreme Court ruled that the prosecutor, who is white, unconstitutionally kept black people off the jury." From Publisher's Note: "Unconstitutional jury selection is nothing new in the American South (as evidenced recently on the pages of this Blog in the Rodricus Crawford Case. (Louisiana); But going to the heart of the Flower's case is the haunting possibility that the man Mississippi Prosecutor Doug Evans is trying so hard to kill is innocent.) Check out this APM story (about a missing gun) by Dave Mann, a senior editor for APM Reports: It's headed: "What happened to the gun? Lots of questions, little evidence in Curtis Flowers."
https://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2019/08/curtis-flowers-mississippi.html
PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "Defense attorney Rob McDuff repeatedly cited prosecutorial misconduct in his Monday arguments and further accused Evans' office of a "pattern of favors" in securing testimony against Flowers. Among them is an instance in which a man -- with "a criminal record a mile long" -- was accused of aggravated assault against a police officer, he said. The man was granted bail, McDuff said. "This really was a deal with the devil that the district attorney made, and it is the supreme irony that a district attorney agreed to bail in that case with that man's record, but is here opposing the bail application of Curtis Flowers," the defense attorney said. In addition, McDuff said, key state witnesses have recanted their sworn statements in interviews with producers of a podcast. He said Flowers never had a criminal record and has compiled an exemplary record while in prison, and there is evidence pointing to more likely suspects. McDuff played a portion of the podcast in court, during which the key witness tells the interviewer of his testimony that Flowers admitted to the murders in prison: "He ain't never tell me that. That was a lie. ... Everything was all make-believe on my part."
Harold Levy: Publisher: The Charles Smith Blog:
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CURRENT POST:
PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "In the Supreme Court’s majority opinion, Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh wrote that “Equal justice under law requires a criminal trial free of racial discrimination in the jury selection process.” By pursuing a “relentless, determined effort to rid the jury of black individuals,” Justice Kavanaugh wrote, the state wanted to try Mr. Flowers “ideally before an all-white jury.”
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STORY: "After 6 Murder Trials and 24 Years, Charges Dropped Against Curtis Flowers," by reporters Nicjolas Bogel-Burroughs, published by The New York Times on September 4, 2020.
SUB-HEADING: "Mr. Flowers had faced the possibility of a seventh trial in the quadruple-murder case from Mississippi,"
GIST: "Prosecutors on Friday dropped murder charges against Curtis Flowers, a Black man who was tried six times for the same killings by a white prosecutor who was found to have pushed to keep Black jurors out of the case.
Mr. Flowers had been accused in the 1996 killings of four people in a furniture store in Winona, Miss. The six previous trials — over more than two decades — ended in mistrials or convictions that were later reversed.
In the most recent trial, Mr. Flowers was convicted and sentenced to death, but his lawyers appealed the conviction to the United States Supreme Court, which ruled last year that the prosecutor, Doug Evans, had unconstitutionally kept Black people from serving on the jury. Over Mr. Flowers’s six trials, 61 of the 72 jurors were white.
“Today, I am finally free from the injustice that left me locked in a box for 23 years,” Mr. Flowers said in a statement.
In the Supreme Court’s majority opinion, Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh wrote that “Equal justice under law requires a criminal trial free of racial discrimination in the jury selection process.” By pursuing a “relentless, determined effort to rid the jury of black individuals,” Justice Kavanaugh wrote, the state wanted to try Mr. Flowers “ideally before an all-white jury.”
Mr. Evans had recused himself from the case in January, and the Mississippi attorney general took over the case. A spokeswoman for Lynn Fitch, the attorney general, confirmed that the charges had been dismissed but said Ms. Fitch would not comment further.
Mr. Flowers was released from custody on bail in December, returning home for the first time in 23 years.
The case drew more attention after it was featured on the podcast “In the Dark,” which cast doubt on some of the prosecutors’ claims.
During the six trials, prosecutors described Mr. Flowers as a disgruntled former employee of the furniture store who was angry because he had been fired. He was arrested several months after the slayings."
The entire story can be read at:
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/04/us/after-6-murder-trials-and-24-years-charges-dropped-against-
PUBLISHER'S NOTE: I am monitoring this case/issue. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog for reports on developments. The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be found at: http://www.thestar.com/topic/charlessmith. Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at: http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2011/05/charles-smith-blog-award-nominations.html Please send any comments or information on other cases and issues of interest to the readers of this blog to: hlevy15@gmail.com. Harold Levy: Publisher: The Charles Smith Blog; -----------------------------------------------------------------
FINAL WORD: (Applicable to all of our wrongful conviction cases): "Whenever there is a wrongful conviction, it exposes errors in our criminal legal system, and we hope that this case — and lessons from it — can prevent future injustices."
Lawyer Radha Natarajan:
Executive Director: New England Innocence Project;
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