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Speaker 1: Again, I gets fired from his job at a furniture store,

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Speaker 1: and then mysteriously, a few days later, the female owner

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Speaker 1: of the store is gunned down in to store, multiple

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Speaker 1: shots to her face, along with three other employees, including

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Speaker 1: a teen boy who was working there. Despite a mountain

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Speaker 1: of evidence, and even after the killer is convicted, Bam reversal,

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Speaker 1: not once, not twice, six times. I'm Nancy Grace. This

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Speaker 1: is crime stories. Crime stories with Nancy Grace, with shocking disbelief.

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Speaker 1: Oh look a steer at Tardy Furniture Company. The sight

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Speaker 1: of wine was quadruple shooting. Friends and relatives identify the

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Speaker 1: dead as Tardy Furniture store owner Bertha Tardy, her bookkeeper

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Speaker 1: Carmen Rigby, and a newly hired employee, Robert Goldman. The

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Speaker 1: fourth victim, Derek Bobo Stewart, like the others, the teenage

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Speaker 1: all star baseball player, was shot in the back of

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Speaker 1: the head execution style. On July sixteenth, somebody goes into

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Speaker 1: the Tardy Furniture store, steals three hundred and eighty sething

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Speaker 1: dollars out of the cash register, and leaves four bodies

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Speaker 1: on the floor. Locals described Tardy as a person who

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Speaker 1: was well known and well liked here that says she

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Speaker 1: was very active in her community and her church. For

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Speaker 1: those reasons, many here are having a hard time believing

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Speaker 1: her family business has become the site of such a

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Speaker 1: gruesome crime. Oh my stars, as we learn in the

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Speaker 1: recent break he news out of the Supreme Court the

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Speaker 1: death penalty conviction and a quadruple murder four people dead

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Speaker 1: has been overturned. Curtis Flowers sent us to death for

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Speaker 1: a quadruple shooting, leaving four dead in a furniture story

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Speaker 1: when known to Mississippi. His case now overturned. The victim's

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Speaker 1: birth up Tarty three employees, Carmen Rigby, Robert Golden, and

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Speaker 1: Derek Stewart. Stewart was just sixteen years old. Flowers had

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Speaker 1: been arrested for the shooting seven months after it happened.

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Speaker 1: He has had six trials, but now we learned the

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Speaker 1: Supreme Court has overturned the conviction. Big question what connects

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Speaker 1: him to the four brutal murders? I mean, as he grazes,

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Speaker 1: this is crime story. Thank you for being with us

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Speaker 1: with me. Kathleen Murphy, North Carolina family lawyer Cloyd Steier

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Speaker 1: thirty six years Seattle, PD author Seattle's Forgotten serial Killer,

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Speaker 1: Gary gen Grant. Doctor Bethany Marshall, psychoanalyst out of la AT.

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Speaker 1: Doctor Bethany Marshall dot com, renowned medical examiner out of

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Speaker 1: South Carolina, author of Homicide Investigation Field Guide. Doctor Michelle

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Speaker 1: Dupree joining me right now. Investigative reporter from the Mississippi

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Speaker 1: Center for Investigative Reporting, author of the upcoming book Race

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Speaker 1: Against Time. Jerry Mitchell. Jerry Mitchell. First of all, I'll

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Speaker 1: get into the legalities later regarding the Supreme Court overturning

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Speaker 1: this conviction after six trials. First, let's talk about the evidence.

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Speaker 1: It actually connects this guy, forty nine year old Curtis Flowers,

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Speaker 1: to the brutal murders of four people, including the owner

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Speaker 1: of the furniture store, fifty nine year old Berth Attardi,

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Speaker 1: and a sixteen year your old boy, Oh, I can

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Speaker 1: hardly take it in. What happened, well, Curtis Flowers was

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Speaker 1: working in the summer of nineteen ninety six ass party

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Speaker 1: furniture there in Oneona, and so uh. During the course

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Speaker 1: of working for him, one day he loaded batteries into

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Speaker 1: the back of truck. He didn't tie them down. They

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Speaker 1: fell out. Um, he didn't show back up to work basically,

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Speaker 1: and then called this uh and talked to miss tardy

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Speaker 1: and said, do I still have a job? And Miss

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Speaker 1: Tardy said no, uh, and we're going to do. You're saying,

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Speaker 1: batteries fell off of a truck. Yeah, liket like car batteries,

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Speaker 1: Carter batteries, Okay, because in my mind all I thought

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Speaker 1: of those triple A batteries. I'm like, it's not that

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Speaker 1: big of a deal. No, no, not like flashlight. I like, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey,

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Speaker 1: I've got I've got my j D. I don't have

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Speaker 1: my degree in you know, auto repair. I know, yes,

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Speaker 1: I know what a car battery looks like, but have

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Speaker 1: and he fell off? I mean, how why was it

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Speaker 1: such a big deal? Well, I don't know. I don't

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Speaker 1: know the exact number, but there was enough enough that

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Speaker 1: it was going to be an expense deductor from his paycheck.

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Speaker 1: And then he just left. Yeah, he never he called her. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: he just never showed back. Then he called to a

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Speaker 1: job because he did not secure the batteries. Is that

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Speaker 1: what happened? He didn't have them secured correctly, so he

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Speaker 1: got fired. Yeah, he didn't. He didn't he didn't get fired.

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Speaker 1: Take a listen to this. My understanding his Curtis Flowers

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Speaker 1: became a suspect almost right away, largely based on a

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Speaker 1: conversation that the Mississippi Sheriff's Department Police Department had with

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Speaker 1: the daughter of one of the victims, Roxyanne Ballard. The

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Speaker 1: daughter mentioned that Curtis Flowers had gotten into some sort

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Speaker 1: of dispute or money. Flowers had been working for birth Attargey.

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Speaker 1: He had been fired from that job for failing to

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Speaker 1: show up. He didn't show up because he damaged some

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Speaker 1: batteries he was told he would have to replace. There

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Speaker 1: was apparently a check made out to him on the desk.

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Speaker 1: It's my understanding of how they got fairly quickly from

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Speaker 1: a universe of suspects to Curtis Flowers. You were hearing

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Speaker 1: our friends at Stars their investigative series The Wrong Man,

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Speaker 1: Jerry Mitchell. What happened? So about eight days before the killing,

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Speaker 1: there was a burglary, like someone broke in the roof

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Speaker 1: of Tardy Furniture and stole this is kind of interesting,

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Speaker 1: stole the side door key. What does that mean? Well, say,

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Speaker 1: there's a side door to this furniture place. You could

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Speaker 1: enter from you follow I'm saying you wouldn't have to enter.

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Speaker 1: B Did you say they came through the roof, Yes,

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Speaker 1: they did, and all they wanted was a side door key. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: Very interesting because that means they want to get in

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Speaker 1: at a later date and they want to get in.

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Speaker 1: I mean, if they were just coming into row, they

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Speaker 1: could have done it, they could have taken it right

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Speaker 1: then whatever money was was there. But instead all they

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Speaker 1: took was a key. Okay, go ahead. Sorry, I'm just

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Speaker 1: ruminating on what you're saying, Jerry Mitchell, and so on

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Speaker 1: the morning of July sixteen, so you you essentially, as

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Speaker 1: it was mentioned earlier, the four people who worked there

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Speaker 1: at at the store were killed and and very brutally,

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Speaker 1: and one of one of them, it was very obvious

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Speaker 1: from the crime scene that one of them was trying

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Speaker 1: to run away and were shot more than once. The

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Speaker 1: rest of them were pretty much shot, you know, point blank,

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Speaker 1: you know, just like bam, bam bam. I mean it

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Speaker 1: would it would have been very quick, or there could

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Speaker 1: have been more than one person involved. And so then

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Speaker 1: the employee sees this called obviously called the police. They

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Speaker 1: come to investigate there they've been shot to death of

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Speaker 1: a three eighty caliber handgun. And so then not long

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Speaker 1: after that, law enforcement gets a call that someone had

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Speaker 1: burglarize the car and stolen his three eighty pistol. So

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Speaker 1: that kind of becomes the driving clue. I guess you

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Speaker 1: could say that early part of the investigation. So that

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Speaker 1: gets connected to Oh, what do you mean that gets

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Speaker 1: connected to Curtis Flowers. Well, the theft of that same gun,

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Speaker 1: you know, the same type of gun as was used

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Speaker 1: in the crime. Yeah, my question to you is how

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Speaker 1: was that theft connected back to Curtis Flowers. There was

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Speaker 1: witness testimony along the lines of having spotted Curtis in

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Speaker 1: the area of the car, So that's that's where that

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Speaker 1: comes from. Well, I mean, when Clarence Thomas disagreed with

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Speaker 1: the reversal, he said Flowers was clearly guilty and that

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Speaker 1: the case was not overturned because Flowers is not believed

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Speaker 1: to be guilty. The case is being overturned because it

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Speaker 1: was alleged to the prosecutor on multiple occasions struck black gerars.

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Speaker 1: You can't do that under the constitution. You can't just

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Speaker 1: you can't strike somebody based on race, and if you do,

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Speaker 1: you get a reversal. Bam. It's just that simple. Bats

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Speaker 1: of the Kentucky. Everybody knows the case. Every lawyer knows it,

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Speaker 1: Kathleen Murphy. When you're striking a jury, it doesn't matter

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Speaker 1: civil criminal, it could be for jaywalking. You do not

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Speaker 1: strike gerars based on race, and in every case you

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Speaker 1: better take notes about why you strike gerars. For instance,

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Speaker 1: I might strike a gerar because they don't have a job.

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Speaker 1: I don't like somebody that doesn't know how to show

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Speaker 1: up on time and be responsible. You don't have a job,

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Speaker 1: I don't want you on a jury. Now that's just me,

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Speaker 1: but that's not unconstitutional. I want somebody that is responsible

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Speaker 1: sitting on that jury. And if I've got a big

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Speaker 1: red flag that somebody can't even show up to work

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Speaker 1: and have a job, I don't want to want my jury.

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Speaker 1: So that is a reason you can strike somebody. But

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Speaker 1: if you're striking somebody because they're black, ah, and oh,

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Speaker 1: let's just say you're trying a DUI vehicular homicide, I

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Speaker 1: don't want somebody that has been already convicted for DUI

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Speaker 1: because they're gonna think, oh, you know, I was mistreated.

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Speaker 1: Now this guy probably wasn't dui and blah blah blah.

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Speaker 1: I don't want somebody that it's blood related to the defendant.

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Speaker 1: I mean, there's a lot of reasons you don't want

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Speaker 1: somebody on a jury, but you absolutely shall not strike

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Speaker 1: based on race, any race, bingo. And not only did

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Speaker 1: it happen one time, but it happened many many times

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Speaker 1: with the very I mean really, and now you've got

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Speaker 1: a quadruple killing hanging in the balance. Take a listen

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Speaker 1: to our friends in WAPT sixteen. We're talking about the

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Speaker 1: Curtis Flowers. He's already been tried six times for killing

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Speaker 1: four people at a furniture store in Winona. That was

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Speaker 1: more than twenty years ago. Today, the nation's highest court

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Speaker 1: throughout his latest conviction, accusing state prosecutors of intentionally keeping

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Speaker 1: Blacks off the jury. A decisive decision, A seven two

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Speaker 1: decision is the US Supreme Court is a pretty resounding decision.

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Speaker 1: The US Supreme Court overturns Curtis Flowers murder conviction and

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Speaker 1: death sentence Friday. The Justice has ruled Mississippi prosecutors intentionally

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Speaker 1: discriminated against Blacks during jury selection for Flowers trial in

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Speaker 1: twenty ten. They said quote, the state's relentless, determined effort

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Speaker 1: to rid the jury of black individuals strongly suggests the

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Speaker 1: state wanted to try Flowers before a jury with as

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Speaker 1: few black juris as possible, and ideally theyfore an all

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Speaker 1: white jury. But on that exact same issue racial discrimination

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Speaker 1: during jury selection, the Mississippi Supreme Court has found Doug

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Speaker 1: Evans did the same thing with Curtis Flowers in the

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Speaker 1: past crime stories with Nancy Grace, we're talking about the

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Speaker 1: Curtis Flowers. He's already been tried six times for killing

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Speaker 1: four people at a furniture store. And why Nona. That

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Speaker 1: was more than twenty years ago. Today, the nation's highest

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Speaker 1: court throughout his latest conviction, accusing state prosecutors of intentionally

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Speaker 1: keeping blacks off the jury. A decisive decision, A seven

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Speaker 1: two decision is of the US Supreme Court is a

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Speaker 1: pretty resounding decision. The US Supreme Court overturns Curtis Flowers

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Speaker 1: murder conviction and death sentence Friday. That justice has ruled

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Speaker 1: Mississippi prosecutors intentionally discriminated against blacks during jury selection for

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Speaker 1: flowers trial in twenty ten, They said, quote, the state's

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Speaker 1: relentless determined effort to rid the jury of black individuals

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Speaker 1: strongly suggests the state wanted to try Flowers before a

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Speaker 1: jury with as few black jurors as possible, and ideally

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Speaker 1: before an all white jury. But on that exact same

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Speaker 1: issue racial discrimination during jury selection, the Mississippi Supreme Court

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Speaker 1: has found Doug Evans do the same thing with Curtis

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Speaker 1: Flowers in the past. You are hearing our friends WAPT sixteen.

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Speaker 1: I have never had either. Well, I have had an

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Speaker 1: all African American jury many many times. To start to say,

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Speaker 1: I've never had a one race jury in my life.

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Speaker 1: Actually I've had many all African American juries before, never

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Speaker 1: had an all white jury. I don't think I've ever

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Speaker 1: even had a predominantly white jerry in all the cases

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Speaker 1: that I tried. But I do know this, You darn

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Speaker 1: well better be able to explain why you strike people. Now.

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Speaker 1: The state claims they struck Jerrars because they knew the

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Speaker 1: Flowers family, or because they knew the victims in the case.

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Speaker 1: They thought that would be a pillable error. I don't

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Speaker 1: understand why anybody would try to keep African Americans off

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Speaker 1: the jury. I mean, for Pete's sake, one of the

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Speaker 1: victims is African American. Mister Robert Golden was African American.

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Speaker 1: I don't know why that would happen, but I do

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Speaker 1: know this. I do know that the evidence points to

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Speaker 1: Curtis Flowers being guilty. For instance, it was shown that

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Speaker 1: he was the one that stole a three eighty caliber weapon,

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Speaker 1: the same caliber that was used and the quadruple murders.

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Speaker 1: Back to you, Jerry Mitchell, what other evidence links Curtis

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Speaker 1: Flowers to the four murders. Well, there was about four

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Speaker 1: hundred dollars less than four hundred dollars missing from the

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Speaker 1: cash drawer, and a state police investigator testified that two

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Speaker 1: hundred and thirty five dollars was found in his girlfriend's

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Speaker 1: headboard headboard at the bed. There were also bloody footprints

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Speaker 1: at the scene, and there was quite a bit testimony

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Speaker 1: on this. So the footprints were supposed to be a

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Speaker 1: ten and a half shoe. It was a Fela Fela

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Speaker 1: made a grand hill shoe and that's that's what it was,

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Speaker 1: very specific shoe and tied to were able to it

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Speaker 1: was a little bit of a roundabout way, but basically

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Speaker 1: tried to tie those back to to Flowers. He was.

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Speaker 1: Witnesses did say they saw him in those particular shoes

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Speaker 1: that morning. What kind of shoes worthy aken? It's a

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Speaker 1: Grant Hill feelings. Peela is a shoe company in They

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Speaker 1: make a Grant Hill style back then they did you

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Speaker 1: know basketball player in Grant Hill. Take a listen to this.

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Speaker 1: Another critical piece of evidence is that Phila footwear impression.

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Speaker 1: Bloody shoe prints are found at the crime scene and

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Speaker 1: police figure out they metch Fela's sneakers size ten and

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Speaker 1: a half Curtis's shoe size, and then they find an

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Speaker 1: empty shoebox at the home of his girlfriend, but there

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Speaker 1: was no sneakers in there, and she said that those

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Speaker 1: shoes belonged to her son. She said they belong to

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Speaker 1: her son. I know they're a popular sneaker, but we

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Speaker 1: still have to we still have to think about that.

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Speaker 1: The gun itself was never recovered. They determined it was

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Speaker 1: at three eighty. Curtis Flower's uncle, Doyle Simpson, had reported

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Speaker 1: a three eighty stolen from his car around the time

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Speaker 1: of the murders. So now you've got two inks with

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Speaker 1: the missing gun and the gunshot residue. Just if we

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Speaker 1: have freeze frame at day one, that was more than

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Speaker 1: enough right to convince the police that Curtis did it.

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Speaker 1: You were hearing our friends at Stars, their investigative series

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Speaker 1: The Wrong Man describing the bloody shoe imprint from a

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Speaker 1: Fiela brand shoe size ten and a half, the same

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Speaker 1: size the defendant war and the same style who was

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Speaker 1: wearing that morning, joining me Cloyd Stiger thirty six years

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Speaker 1: Seattle PD twenty two homicide doctor Bethany Marshall and doctor

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Speaker 1: Michelle Duprie to Cloyd style or what other evidence do

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Speaker 1: you find that especially links Curtis Flowers to these four murders?

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Speaker 1: And again several justice on Supreme Court said, this is

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Speaker 1: not about guilt or innocence. We're not saying he's innocent.

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Speaker 1: We're saying the jury wasn't struck correctly. Yeah, that's exactly right.

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Speaker 1: So it's more of an alleged prosecut misconduct enough to

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Speaker 1: have six trials, which is, you know, such a burden

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Speaker 1: on the victims families that have to go through that,

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Speaker 1: But you know the things you have and I don't

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Speaker 1: have a specific list of all the physical evidence, but

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Speaker 1: you have the circumstantial evidence. He was fired from a

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Speaker 1: job he had the circumstantial evidence that that key was

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Speaker 1: taken the three eighty taken out of the truck, and

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Speaker 1: I thought I read that it was mistaken from his

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Speaker 1: uncle's truck, so he would have known the gun was

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Speaker 1: in there and then and then of course I'd be

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Speaker 1: interested in the climb scene if his boss was shot

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Speaker 1: in the face, or was there more shot Star than

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Speaker 1: everybody else. She was the intended target and the others

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Speaker 1: were just witnesses he had to get rid of. That's

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Speaker 1: that's the type of stuff I would look at, But

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Speaker 1: I don't know in this case if that's true. Take

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Speaker 1: a listen to this. The police took him in for questioning.

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Speaker 1: They did a GSR test at gun chat residue test.

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Speaker 1: They found one particle on his right hand, one single particle.

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Speaker 1: If he did all this shooting, wouldn't he have more

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Speaker 1: than one particle? He could have washed his hands. Crime

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Speaker 1: stories with Nancy Grace and the recent breaking news out

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Speaker 1: of the Supreme Court, the death penalty conviction and a

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Speaker 1: quadruple murder four people dead has been overturned. Curtis Flowers

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Speaker 1: sent us to death for a quadruple shooting, leaving four

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Speaker 1: dead in a furniture store when known to Mississippi. His

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Speaker 1: case now overturned. The victim's birth Tarty three employees Carmen Rigby,

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Speaker 1: Robert Golden, and Derek Stewart. I mean as he grazes

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Speaker 1: this as crime stories. Thank you for being with us,

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Speaker 1: with me. Kathleen Murphy, North Carolina family lawyer Cloyd Steyer

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Speaker 1: thirty six years Seattle, p d. Author a Seattle's Forgotten

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Speaker 1: serial Killer, Gary gen Grant, Doctor Bethany Marshall, psychoanalyst out

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Speaker 1: of la AT. Doctor Bethany Marshall dot com, renowned medical

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Speaker 1: examiner out of South Carolina. Author of Homicide Investigation Field Guide.

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Speaker 1: Doctor Michelle Dupree Joining me right now. Investigative reporter from

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Speaker 1: the Mississippi Center for Investigative Reporting. Author of the upcoming

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Speaker 1: book Race Against Time. Jerry Mitchell. Jerry Mitchell, take a

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Speaker 1: listen to this. The police took him in for questioning.

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Speaker 1: They did a GSR test at gunshot residue test. They

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Speaker 1: found one particle on his right hand, one single particle.

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Speaker 1: If he did all of this shooting, wouldn't he have

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Speaker 1: more than one particle? He could have washed his hands.

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Speaker 1: That is entirely true to Chloyd Stike or twenty two

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Speaker 1: years homicide detective and author. I don't have gunshot residue

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Speaker 1: on my hands. I can tell you that right now.

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Speaker 1: Gunshot residue is like baby powder. It can come off,

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Speaker 1: you know if you just brush your hands on your clothes.

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Speaker 1: The fact that he had any gunshot residue at all

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Speaker 1: on his trigger hand, I think it's very significent. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: I'd also want to know how long after the shooting

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Speaker 1: happened that that test was given. I mean could fall off,

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Speaker 1: you wash your hands, and you know, although it's a

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Speaker 1: caveat there, there can be false positives on gunchat residue test. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: I mean there can be. And little green men could

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Speaker 1: have come down from ours and gone into the furniture

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Speaker 1: store and killed four people too. Yeah, that could happen,

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Speaker 1: but the likelihood of that happening is very very low.

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Speaker 1: Take a listen to this. The police took him in

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Speaker 1: for questioning. They did a GSR test at Gunchat residue test.

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Speaker 1: They found one particle on his right hand, one single particle.

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Speaker 1: If he did all this shooting, wouldn't he have more

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Speaker 1: than one particle? He could have washed his hands, he

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Speaker 1: could have wiped his hands. Okay, could he get gunshot

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Speaker 1: residue on his hand from being in the police car

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Speaker 1: from transferring? Yes, yeah, absolutely, yep. There's also the money

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Speaker 1: that was found in his girlfriend's house. Right, police reported

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Speaker 1: around four hundred dollars was taken from the cash register

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Speaker 1: Attardey's and they found about two hundred and fifty dollars

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Speaker 1: at the girlfriend's house when they hit in the head.

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Speaker 1: Beware of the hit rights, I mean like banks. That

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Speaker 1: does mean you know she was hiding his Snashwini. You

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Speaker 1: were hearing our friends at Stars their investigative series The

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Speaker 1: Wrong Man to doctor Bethany Marshall if this is correct,

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Speaker 1: Doctor Bethany Psychoanalyst joining me out of Beverly Heels at

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Speaker 1: doctor Bethany Marshall dot com. The fact that the furniture

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Speaker 1: store owner, the woman berthat tardy who fired him for

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Speaker 1: losing all that money with those batteries off the back

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Speaker 1: of a truck, if she took multiple shots to the face,

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Speaker 1: what does that tell you? Well, I'm much more to

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Speaker 1: know more about the behavioral evidence before commenting on that, meaning,

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Speaker 1: how did he talk if he had a girlfriend and

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Speaker 1: the money was found in the headboard, how was he

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Speaker 1: talking to the girlfriend about the boss? How did he

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Speaker 1: feel about being fired? Was he obsessing about the boss?

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Speaker 1: Did he have what we call persecutory distress, meaning that

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Speaker 1: he felt that the boss had affected his life in

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Speaker 1: some irreversibly bad way. You know, some people get fired

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Speaker 1: from a job. They're young, and they say, oh, you

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Speaker 1: know what, I'll go give another job or I'm employable

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Speaker 1: in other areas. However, we know many people who get

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Speaker 1: fired who then go back and commit homicide, like workplace violence,

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Speaker 1: they have a recent history of having felt that there

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Speaker 1: was a power and balance between them and another employee.

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Speaker 1: Sometimes we find that another employee got promoted they didn't,

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Speaker 1: They feel underpaid, They have a history of violence, and

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Speaker 1: they feel that their inferior to other people in society,

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Speaker 1: and that gets placed on the boss. So if she

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Speaker 1: was shot multiple times in the face the boss and

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Speaker 1: he had all these behavioral characteristics that would very powerfully

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Speaker 1: point to him as the perpetrator in this case. Not

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Speaker 1: only that, but we now learn witnesses place him in

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Speaker 1: the area of the furniture store the morning of the shooting.

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Speaker 1: Listen make another save two us concerning the trial for

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Speaker 1: his flowers, claiming from Matt point owner when you first

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Speaker 1: saw him? What was his actions? What was he doing? Okay? Uh?

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Speaker 1: In which direction you were running? Like chemistry? We've been

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Speaker 1: away from parts. Okay, what canque your attention to begin

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Speaker 1: with it? Because I ain't say I was seeing around

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Speaker 1: and trull card is not ling costume. To Jerry Mitchell,

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Speaker 1: investigative reporter with the Mississippi Center for Investigative Reporting, a

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Speaker 1: two thousand and nine MacArthur fellow, Jerry, doubt was cast

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Speaker 1: on the witness stating she saw him running from the

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Speaker 1: furniture store, but other witnesses seemingly placed him in the

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Speaker 1: vicinity that morning. Is that true? Yeah, it's super really

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Speaker 1: like a whole there was a whole long line of

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Speaker 1: witnesses who kind of were documenting his trail to the

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Speaker 1: furniture store and then leaving the furniture store as well.

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Speaker 1: Yet a kind of a whole series of witnesses on

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Speaker 1: I find it hard to believe that they were all lying,

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Speaker 1: every single one of them placing him at the furniture store.

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Speaker 1: For I'm where he was fired. How many weeks? Two

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Speaker 1: weeks before the shootings. Yeah, it was like right, exactly

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Speaker 1: like two weeks somewhere in that neighborhood. Absolutely take a

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Speaker 1: listen to this. And since the last trial, witnesses Odell Hallman,

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Speaker 1: Clemmy Fleming and Ed mc christian have dragged cannon are

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Speaker 1: drastically changed their previous testimony that was offered against Missus

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Speaker 1: Flowers from other pleadings that have been filed in this case.

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Speaker 1: This court is also on judicial notice that Patricia Hallman,

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Speaker 1: another witness that testified against miss Flowers in the past,

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Speaker 1: has been convicted multiple council federal income tax fraud, which

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Speaker 1: will undermine her credibility. So it seems to me that

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Speaker 1: a lot of evidence leaks Curtis Flowers to the murders

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Speaker 1: Number one. Multiple witnesses placed him in the vicinity of

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Speaker 1: the four murders the very morning of the murders. Money

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Speaker 1: was taken from the till money was found hidden beside

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Speaker 1: his girlfriend's bed. Bloody footprints link up to specifically a

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Speaker 1: feel of Grant Hill Style ten and a half, which

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Speaker 1: is exactly the shoe he wore and was wearing that morning.

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Speaker 1: He was seen in the y of the car, his

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Speaker 1: uncle's car. He knew the gun was in there, where

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Speaker 1: three eighty caliber was stolen. A three eighty caliber was

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Speaker 1: used in this case. Someone broke into the furniture store

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Speaker 1: specifically to get the key to one of the side

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Speaker 1: doors so they would not be seen at the front,

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Speaker 1: taking nothing else, and he been fired from the job

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Speaker 1: about two weeks before gunshy residue on his trigger hand.

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Speaker 1: I mean to me, that's a pretty strong conviction. The

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Speaker 1: procedural errors of striking the jury and eliminating African Americans

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Speaker 1: from the jury, that's why this is being reversed. Crime

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Speaker 1: stories with Nancy Grace. Justice Britt Kavanaugh wrote that a

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Speaker 1: white Mississippi prosecutor's gold was to have an old white

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Speaker 1: jury decided the fate of an African American man accused

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Speaker 1: of murder, which is unconstitutional. The court's newest justice said

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Speaker 1: that District Attorney Doug Evans waged a relentless, determined effort

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Speaker 1: to rid the jury of black individuals. It was Curtis

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Speaker 1: flowers sixth trial for the same quadruple murder. Kavanaugh pointed

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Speaker 1: to a pattern, noting that Evans had removed forty one

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Speaker 1: of the forty two prospective black jurors over the six trials.

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Speaker 1: Sherry Lynn Johnson is Flowers lawyer, I think that when

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Speaker 1: seven members of this court, which is often divided, are

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Speaker 1: agreed that there was racial discrimination, then that's a powerful

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Speaker 1: signal that both something went terribly wrong and that the

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Speaker 1: Supreme Court cares about it. She says, if Flowers was

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Speaker 1: happy with the decision, even though he's now facing a

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Speaker 1: possible seventh trial for the murders, you are hearing our

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Speaker 1: friends at CBS joining me right now. Investigative reporter from

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Speaker 1: the Mississippi Center for Investigative Reporting, author of the upcoming

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Speaker 1: book Race Against Time, Jerry Mitchell. If flowers convictions were

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Speaker 1: overturned four times, the reason he stayed in jail was

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Speaker 1: because nobody ever said he was innocent. The court didn't

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Speaker 1: say that, They just said procedural errors required a retrial.

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Speaker 1: Is that correct? Yees, So it's a count and it's

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Speaker 1: a capital murder charge. So obviously, at least the Mississippi

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Speaker 1: defense are typically denied bond in in cases of capital

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Speaker 1: murder unless the certain stances. Now, was he facing the

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Speaker 1: death penalty or was did he just get four lives? Hey,

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Speaker 1: he definitely definitely got the death penalty sentence that was

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Speaker 1: never carried out. Now, Jerry, another question, We know that

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Speaker 1: it's been alleged that African American Gerards were struck systematically.

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Speaker 1: Was what that what happened in his last trial was

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Speaker 1: that the misconduct in the last trial. I think essentially

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Speaker 1: the pattern was throughout the cases. But that's my understanding

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Speaker 1: is essentially with each of the cases, you know, I

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Speaker 1: think it was something like fifty percent of the potential

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Speaker 1: black jurors were structed. So that's what happened in his

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Speaker 1: last trial, they struck, they tried to get an all

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Speaker 1: white juries. That what happened in the last trial, that's

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Speaker 1: my understanding. It was just a pattern of behavior. Take

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Speaker 1: a listen to this. And third trial, mister Flowers will

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Speaker 1: try and convict of the kapital murder of birth Attardy

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Speaker 1: Robert Golden, Carmen Rigged Began Derek Stewart. Those convictions were

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Speaker 1: reversed because the Miss Spreene court found the State of

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Speaker 1: Missive he had engaged in racial discrimination during jury selection.

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Speaker 1: And fourth trial, mister Flowers was again tried for committing

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Speaker 1: awful of murders. In that case, prosecution did not seek

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Speaker 1: the death penalty. The jury was unable to reach a

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Speaker 1: verdict and a mistrial was declared. In the fifth trial

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Speaker 1: and also incidentally the first time I was involved in

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Speaker 1: this case. Missus Flowers was again tried for committing all

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Speaker 1: four murders. State of Mississippi reverse course and again sought

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Speaker 1: the death penalty. The jury was unable to reach it

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Speaker 1: the verdict and another miss trial was declared. In the

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Speaker 1: sixth trial, Missus Flowers was tried and convicted for committing

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Speaker 1: all four murders. The jury imposed the death penalty. Those

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Speaker 1: convictions were reversed by the United States Supreme Court. The

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Speaker 1: court found that the State of Missippi had once again

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Speaker 1: engaged in racial discrimination during jury selection. Another question, has

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Speaker 1: this guy actually gotten out on bond? Jerry Mitchell? He has,

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Speaker 1: he has. The judge basically led him out the other

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Speaker 1: day and kind of signaled, he called it troubling. Is

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Speaker 1: a morosecutors have yet to respond to defense motion to

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Speaker 1: drop the charges against Flowers, so he kind of said,

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Speaker 1: you know, if the prosecutors failed to respond that, as

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Speaker 1: he put at, the state will reach the whirlwind. Take

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Speaker 1: a listen to this. And I want to say this,

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Speaker 1: while I'm on record on this case, I want to

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Speaker 1: note the troubling fact that in the nearly four months

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Speaker 1: that this case has been back before the court. The

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Speaker 1: State of Missippi has taken absolutely no action of any

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Speaker 1: kind and furtherance of this prosecution, even after being ordered

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Speaker 1: to do so. The state failed to file a written

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Speaker 1: response to the motion for bailed. The states also failed

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Speaker 1: to file a written response to the motion to disqualify

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Speaker 1: disattorney Doug Evans Evans even though the state again had

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Speaker 1: notice of that. The state has also failed to file

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Speaker 1: a written response to the pending motion to dismiss the end.

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Speaker 1: So I just will have this caution for the State

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Speaker 1: of Misissippi if it contends in its dilatory conduct and

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Speaker 1: if it continues to ignore orders issued by the CORE,

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Speaker 1: if the State of Misissippi will reap the whirlwind. Well,

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Speaker 1: I can tell you this much. I typically do not agree. Well,

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Speaker 1: I never agree with a death row inmate walking free

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Speaker 1: on bond. But in this case, the prosecutors did not

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Speaker 1: respond to a bell motion. I mean, that's like not

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Speaker 1: showing up for a ball game, you forfeit. This is

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Speaker 1: insane that the prosecutors did not respond to a bell motion.

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Speaker 1: Let me ask you this, Jerry Mitchell, if he goes

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Speaker 1: back to trial, I'm sure the same evidence is going

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Speaker 1: to come in. If he's convicted, do you believe it

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Speaker 1: will be the same sentence? Because I don't ask a

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Speaker 1: good question. I don't know. I mean, I actually I'm

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Speaker 1: actually leaning toward the that he I don't see him

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Speaker 1: getting tried again. If the state thirty bailing on all

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Speaker 1: these other things already, it sounds like they're trying to

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Speaker 1: trip the charges for them. Yeah, exactly. Let me hear

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Speaker 1: that sound again, Jackie, because someone was speaking to me,

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Speaker 1: that would be you while you were playing. I need

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Speaker 1: to hear what the judge said again. And I want

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Speaker 1: to say this while I'm on record on this case.

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Speaker 1: I want to note the troubling fact that in the

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Speaker 1: nearly four months that this case has been back before

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Speaker 1: the court, the State of Missipi has taken absolutely no

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Speaker 1: action of any kind and furtherance of this prosecution, even

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Speaker 1: after being ordered to do so. The state failed to

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Speaker 1: file a written response the motion for bail. The states

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Speaker 1: also failed to file a written response to the motion

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Speaker 1: to disqualify disattorney Doug Evans Evans, even though the state

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Speaker 1: again had notice of that. The state has also failed

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Speaker 1: to file a written in response to the pending motion

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Speaker 1: to dismiss the indictment. So I just will have this

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Speaker 1: caution for the State of Mississippi if it continues in

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Speaker 1: its dilatory conduct and if it continues to ignore orders

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Speaker 1: issued by the Core, if the State of Mississippi will

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Speaker 1: reap the whirlwind man that judge means business. We wait

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Speaker 1: as justice unfolds. Nancy Grace Crumbs story, signing off, goodbye friend,