Drawing from hundreds of interviews and thousands of pages of previously unreleased government documents, our new season investigates the killing of 24 civilians in Haditha, Iraq—and what the U.S. military has kept from the public for years. Listen here.
It's over. All charges against Curtis Flowers have been dropped.
The Mississippi man endured nearly 23 years behind bars, six trials, four death sentences and, most recently, months of house arrest for murders he always maintained that he didn't commit.
Curtis Flowers was allowed to remove his ankle monitor Friday afternoon after the Mississippi Attorney General’s Office dropped all charges against him.
Read the story:
Here's Archie Flowers this morning, shortly after learning that his son's conviction was overturned by SCOTUS. He spoke to Curtis on the phone.
Read our story:
📷: Hunter Hart
Circuit Judge Joey Loper granted Curtis Flowers' request for bail at a Monday morning hearing in Winona, Mississippi. Loper set bail in the amount of $250,000.
NEW: Curtis Flowers filed a lawsuit today that alleges District Attorney Doug Evans and three investigators committed misconduct that led to his wrongful imprisonment for more than two decades.
Curtis Flowers walked out of jail at 4 p.m. Monday, 23 years, six trials, and four death sentences after the day he first walked in. He is finally — at least temporarily — free after posting a bond of $25,000.
In removing himself from the Curtis Flowers case on Monday, District Attorney Doug Evans wrote, "I have come to the conclusion that my continued involvement will prevent the families from obtaining justice."
Our story:
This just in: Curtis Flowers has been transferred off Parchman's death row, as expected, since SCOTUS reversed his conviction. Today he arrived at a county jail in Grenada, MS, where he'll be held in pretrial detention. His lawyer has filed a motion asking for bail. Story coming.
The state of Mississippi will pay Curtis Flowers $500,000 for his nearly 23 years of wrongful imprisonment.
The award is the maximum allowed under Mississippi law.
“Today, I am finally free from the injustice that left me locked in a box for nearly 23 years,” Flowers said in a statement. “I’ve been asked if I ever thought this day would come. … With a family that never gave up on me and with them by my side, I knew it would.”
District Attorney Doug Evans is being sued for his practice of excluding black people from juries. The class-action suit was filed Monday morning in federal district court.
Though his freedom may be temporary (there may be a seventh trial), Curtis Flowers said he was looking forward to spending Christmas with his family for the first time in decades.
"I'm so excited right now. I can't even think straight," Flowers said.
Circuit Judge Joey Loper granted Curtis Flowers' request for bail at a Monday morning hearing in Winona, Mississippi. Loper set bail in the amount of $250,000.
In a 7-2 ruling on Friday, the Supreme Court reversed the conviction of Curtis Flowers.
They concluded that the white district attorney had violated Flowers' constitutional rights by intentionally removing African-Americans from the jury pool.
During three years investigating the Curtis Flowers case, we’d talked to nearly everyone involved: lawyers, witnesses, jurors, family members, investigators, politicians and people around town.
But there was one person we hadn’t yet interviewed.
Programming note: Episode 6 of our series Coronavirus in the Delta will be delayed.
Effectively immediately, our entire team will be helping
@mprnews
report on the
#GeorgeFloyd
protests in Minneapolis.
Buried deep in yesterday's settlement story, this tidbit:
At the end of the month, Curtis Flowers will marry his fiancée, who began a correspondence with him while he was in prison.
In her dismissal motion, Mississippi AG Lynn Fitch wrote, “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.”
Read:
Flowers’ attorneys described the dismissal with prejudice as similar to an acquittal. “They literally cannot prosecute him again,” Rob McDuff said. “We don’t have to worry about Doug Evans coming back behind the attorney general and charging Curtis again. That can’t happen.”
Fitch’s decision doesn’t prove that Flowers is innocent, but it does absolve him of blame. And her move to dismiss the case *with* prejudice — a rarity in criminal cases — means she took an extra step to ensure that he is never tried again for the murders at Tardy Furniture.
Just got word that Curtis Flowers has been transferred again. He's currently getting booked in at the jail in Winston County, one hour southeast of Winona.
He'll have a single cell and contact visits with his family. Unclear why he was moved after less than a day in Grenada.
New episode of the podcast out this morning, based on Friday's decision by the Mississippi A.G. to drop all charges against Curtis Flowers.
Episode 19: Freedom
🎧 Apple:
🎧 Spotify:
🎧 Google:
Here's the scene outside the U.S. Supreme Court building this morning, with more than 200 people in line to hear Curtis Flowers' oral arguments.
📷:
@GregKahn
Archie Flowers spoke to television cameras in the courtroom Monday shortly after his son Curtis was granted bail.
We'll bring you his voice in a new episode as quickly as we can assemble the pieces.
The Mississippi Supreme Court officially reversed Curtis Flowers' conviction today (a procedural step ordered by SCOTUS).
The state court will continue to hold the case for 21 days, meaning Flowers won't be transferred out of Parchman before 9/19.
More:
We’re thrilled to announce that we are joining The New Yorker to produce and distribute our next season. Stay subscribed wherever you listen to podcasts, and follow
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for updates.
In granting bail, Judge Joey Loper said the evidence against Curtis Flowers was too thin to continue to keep him locked up.
His searing critique of the evidence foreshadowed an existential crisis that will plague any prosecution ahead.
In an unexpected turn, District Attorney Doug Evans — Curtis Flowers' longtime courtroom adversary — wasn't at the hearing Monday morning.
No explanation was given for Evans' absence. Assistant District Attorney Adam Hopper appeared in his stead.
Judge Loper concluded Monday with a stern censure of Doug Evans, addressed to Asst. District Attorney Adam Hopper, who attended in Evans' stead.
"Mr. Hopper, your boss chose for whatever reason not to be here today. I don't know why he's not here — I expected him to be here ..."
We've got a NEW EPISODE in your podcast feeds this morning.
"S2 E16: A Hearing" has courtroom arguments and (for the first time) the voice of Curtis Flowers.
Listen now:
About an hour after the decision came down, Archie's phone buzzed. It was a call from Curtis in Parchman. Archie's face broke into a giant smile. After discussing the news for a few minutes, the two men, who are both gospel singers, dove into a long conversation about music.
In an order today, Judge Joey Loper revealed that the Mississippi AG’s office has agreed to take the Curtis Flowers case.
Loper ordered D.A. Doug Evans to send his "complete file” to the AG's office so new prosecutors can “review the evidence and... proceed as appropriate.”
In October,
@60Minutes
correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi joined us in our St. Paul studios while we recorded the final episode of Season 2.
Their story about Curtis Flowers (and our podcast) will air Sunday night.
"There's still a lot of people that I'm disappointed in. But I find that if I sit around and stress over this and that, it only just makes it worse. You know, so I just try to let it go." -Curtis Flowers
Listen:
One week from today, we'll start a new series of episodes about people in the Mississippi Delta and how they've been affected by the coronavirus.
You can listen to the trailer now:
Judge Joey Loper yesterday ordered District Attorney Doug Evans to respond to the dismissal and bail motions filed by Curtis Flowers' lawyers.
He has 30 days.
More case updates:
The newest and perhaps most controversial member of the U.S. Supreme Court, Brett Kavanaugh, appeared to side heavily with lawyers for Curtis Flowers during oral arguments this morning.
Judge Joey Loper has the power to prevent a seventh trial for Curtis Flowers.
He presided over Flowers' last two trials and frequently sided with the prosecution in his rulings. But at the bail hearing, Loper seemed to be seeing the case anew.
When he got the call from his son Curtis on Friday morning, Archie Flowers was sitting at his dining room table in Winona, Mississippi. We were there.
"Episode 14: The Decision" is now live in the feed. Listen with
@ApplePodcasts
:
An obscure Mississippi law seems to require that bail be granted to anyone who's had two capital trials for the same crime that ended in hung juries.
Curtis Flowers' new lawyer cited it in a motion yesterday: "Mississippi law is clear: Bail is mandatory."
This is what it's all been building to: the culmination of years of reporting.
Sign up for In the Dark email notifications and we'll let you know as soon as it's available.
District Attorney Doug Evans has been trying Curtis Flowers in Mississippi courtrooms for 21 years. Now Flowers' lawyers want to turn the tables on the prosecutor.
Another NEW EPISODE.
After Curtis Flowers' release on bail, our reporters take the temperature of the town and go out in search of Doug Evans.
Download now:
We're back this morning with the first of four new podcast episodes.
It's a preview of oral arguments, and we examine the allegations at the heart of the appeal: that Doug Evans tried to keep African-Americans off the jury in Curtis Flowers' sixth trial.
Curtis Flowers has gone free, but so has the prosecutor who relentlessly pursued him.
District Attorney Doug Evans, the man most responsible for Flowers’ ordeal, has faced no adverse consequences for his handling of the case.
In a letter dated last week, Judge Joey Loper asked the new attorney general for some guidance with the Curtis Flowers case.
"I have never had a situation where the District Attorney disqualified himself and his office," Loper wrote.
Read the letter:
Though he's prevailed in his appeal, Curtis Flowers won't be freed right away.
He'll likely be transferred from death row back to county jail, where he'll wait to hear if his 23-year legal odyssey has finally ended or if he'll face a seventh trial.
Judge Joey Loper's ruling read like a referendum on the diminished state of the case against Curtis Flowers:
"In the next trial, should one occur, the state of Mississippi is faced with the prospect of having to present a far weaker case to the jury than it's had in the past."
Deputy AG Mary Helen Wall is the new prosecutor in the Curtis Flowers case, according to a court filing today. Wall has spent more than 16 years in criminal litigation, as both a federal prosecutor and public defender. She's new to the MS AG's office, now led by Lynn Fitch.
In "Episode 18: The Recusal," we examine what happens next in the Curtis Flowers case, now that Doug Evans is gone.
NEW EPISODE in your podcast feeds now.
Throughout Season 2, we've told Curtis Flowers' story in the podcast and on the web, and we've picked our spots to send video cameras with reporters. Here's a sampling 👇
Curtis Flowers wasn't at the Supreme Court for oral arguments in his case — he remains on death row in Mississippi — but our team was. This is what we saw.
Much has changed in Winona since our last episode.
The town is talking about the case. Flowers' lawyers are using our findings. Citizens are trying to file bar complaints against Doug Evans. And one man has gone into hiding.
Patricia Hallmon, a prosecution witness in all six of Curtis Flowers’ trials, died on Sunday. Hallmon isn’t the first witness to die in the 23-year-long history of the case, but she is the only witness to have recanted parts of her testimony to In the Dark before doing so.
We're one week out from Curtis Flowers' case at the Supreme Court.
Here's our first preview story, summarizing the arguments each side has made so far.
Six times Clemmie Fleming has taken the witness stand to testify that she saw Curtis Flowers running from Tardy Furniture on the morning that four people were murdered.
But she won't do it a seventh.
In recent days, there have been three significant developments, including new details from a key witness, that may change Curtis Flowers' fate.
Episode 15 out this morning:
Say His Name: Curtis Flowers
Curtis is one of the many individuals being honored by players and coaches this season through the NFL’s helmet decal program.
#SayTheirStories
:
It's been a long climb, but Curtis Flowers has finally reached the pinnacle of the American justice system. His case will be heard in six days at the Supreme Court.
These are the arguments the two sides will make.
Before there were the six trials of Curtis Flowers, there were the two trials of Bobby Joe Townsend.
Rob McDuff, the civil rights attorney taking over the helm of Flowers' defense, uncovered misconduct by Doug Evans' office once before.
The time and location of Curtis Flowers' bail hearing has been changed, per a new order from Judge Loper.
It will now be held at the courthouse in Winona, one week from today.
We're expecting an opinion in Flowers v. Mississippi anytime between now and the end of the Supreme Court's session in June.
If you want to know as soon as we know, sign up here for email notifications:
In October,
@60Minutes
correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi joined us in our St. Paul studios while we recorded the final episode of Season 2.
Their story about Curtis Flowers (and our podcast) will air Sunday night.
"I hadn't thought about [what would happen if Curtis' conviction is overturned]. I guess I should be thinking about that, but I guess I don't, not too many times. I just pray and hope. Hope he get free."
We hear from Archie Flowers in Episode 12.
The plaintiffs are not seeking monetary damages. Rather, they're asking a judge, on behalf of all of Doug Evans' black constituents, to issue an injunction forcing Evans' office to stop.
Here's the full complaint:
For nearly 29 years, no one in law enforcement had explained why Jacob Wetterling's murder remained unsolved for so long. Nor had anyone taken responsibility for it.
That all changed on Thursday morning.
A motion to request a bail hearing was filed by Curtis Flowers' lawyer today. Flowers has been in a county jail since his release from Parchman prison on Sept. 23.
Read the document:
The U.S. Supreme Court announced Friday that it will hear Curtis Flowers' appeal and decide whether his conviction should be overturned.
There's a short podcast episode in your feed this morning to explain what happens next.
In Season 1 of our podcast, we reported on the missteps in Jacob Wetterling investigation.
This morning in your podcast feed, an update episode on law enforcement's release of the Wetterling file.
In early April, a storm hit Greenville, Mississippi. It started when two pastors and the mayor clashed over how to do church during a pandemic. Then Fox News got involved.
"Curtis Flowers has spent 22 years in prison, most of it on death row. It is time to bring this case to an end and dismiss it without any further trials."
-Rob McDuff, on taking over the helm of Flowers' defense
Hear him in Episode 15:
It's official: Doug Evans will run unopposed in 2019. Today was the deadline to enter the DA's race in Mississippi's 5th District. Nobody else signed up.
Evans, the prosecutor who's tried Curtis Flowers six times, will keep his job for four more years.
There was a court hearing Friday (conducted via video conference) in the lawsuit over District Attorney Doug Evans' jury selection practices. Evans was not present.
Read more:
There's a new 10-minute episode in your podcast feeds this morning about Curtis Flowers' appeal going to the Supreme Court.
@madeleinebaran
calls up attorney Alison Steiner and checks in with Flowers' father, Archie.
Curtis Flowers is now being held in pretrial detention at a county jail in Grenada, Mississippi.
He will likely remain there until his case is resolved — either at trial, through a plea deal or because the charges against him are dropped.