Friday, September 4, 2020, 5:05 pm News Flash Archive

Today, the Mississippi Attorney General's office filed a motion in the Montgomery County Circuit Court requesting that the indictment of Curtis Flowers for murder be dismissed with prejudice. Soon thereafter, Judge Joseph Loper signed the order ending the case for all time.

The Motion requesting dismissal of the indictment may be viewed here: Attorney General's Motion to Dismiss Indictment

Judge Loper's order finally dismissing the case may be viewed here: Court Order Dismissing Case

Because the indictment charging Mr. Flowers has been dismissed with prejudice, the charges may never be brought back up against him again.

Flowers was charged for the murder of four people at the Tardy Furniture Store in Winona in 1996. He was tried six times, with four of the trials ending in convictions and sentences of death.

But each of those convictions was ultimately overturned by the courts in each case due to prosecutorial misconduct.

The last of the four convictions was upheld by the State Supreme Court in 2014. See here: Curtis Flowers death penalty upheld by MS Sup Ct.

But that conviction was overturned last year by the United States Supreme Court, which ruled that the prosecutor, Doug Evans, had illegally excluded people from the jury based on race. See here: US Supreme Court overturns Curtis Flowers Murder Conviction by 7-2 vote

The Attorney General's office stated in its motion:

As the evidence stands today, there is no key prosecution witness that incriminates Mr. Flowers who is alive and available and has not had multiple, conflicting statements in the record.

Additionally, this Court took judicial notice that another witness who testified against Mr. Flowers in the past, was later convicted of multiple counts of federal income tax fraud; she is now deceased. Several other material witnesses are also dead and unavailable to testify about the events that occurred twenty-four years ago.

As the Court noted at the bail review hearing, the only witness who offered direct evidence of guilt recanted his prior testimony, admitting that he was lying when he said Mr. Flowers made a jailhouse confession to the murders.

Moreover, the Court was made aware of alternative suspects with violent criminal histories, as well as possible exculpatory evidence not previously considered.

Given the facts and circumstances of this case, and based on the totality of circumstances, it is in the interest of justice that the State will not seek an unprecedented seventh trial of Mr. Flowers.

For the first time in 24 years, Curtis Flowers is a completely free man.

John Pittman Hey
The Taxpayers Channel

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