Monday, March 1, 2021, 12:40 pm News Flash Archive

The State of Mississippi appears to be setting the stage to pay damages to Curtis Flowers for wrongful imprisonment.

Meanwhile, as of publication time, the State Attorney General's office is over a month late in filing its reply to Mr. Flowers' lawsuit.

On February 23, the House of Representatives passed an additional appropriation bill, which contains a number of catch-all items, including several approvals to pay damages to persons who were wrongfully imprisoned.

Included in that bill are appropriations to pay Curtis Flowers $50,000, along with another $50,000 for his legal costs. The bill, which has now been transmitted to the Senate for approval, may be seen here: Mississippi House Bill 1414, additional appropriations

As first reported by The Taxpayers Channel, Flowers filed a lawsuit for damages against the state for wrongful imprisonment. Under the law, Flowers is entitled to $500,000 in damages plus attorney's fees. He is represented by Robert McDuff of Jackson. Our report on the suit, along with a copy of Flowers' complaint, may be seen here: Curtis Flowers sues state for wrongful imprisonment compensation

Flowers was charged with the murder of four persons (Robert Golden, Carmen Rigby, BoBo Stewart, and Bertha Tardy) at the Tardy Furniture Store in Winona in 1996, and was tried six times. He was convicted and sentenced to death four times, but each time his conviction was overturned because of prosecutorial misconduct. At two other trials, the jury hung and could not return a verdict.

After the US Supreme Court threw out Flowers' last conviction in June 2019, the state declined to try the case a seventh time, and the court dismissed the charges against Flowers. Many of the state's witnesses have recanted, and other crucial parts of the state's case have collapsed.

The Attorney General's lawyer Wilson Minor asked the court for an extension, which gave him until January 29, 2021 to file an answer to Flowers' complaint.

However, according to the Montgomery County Circuit Court docket, as of today, no answer has been filed.

The Taxpayers Channel contacted Mr. Minor to inquire when an answer will be filed. Mr. Minor declined to answer our question, but referred us to Colby Jordan, Director of Communications.

Our email request for information Friday to Mr. Jordan has not been acknowledged.

John Pittman Hey
The Taxpayers Channel

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