(AURN News) — Curtis Flowers, a Black man who spent nearly 23 years imprisoned in Mississippi, has died at 56, according to The New York Times.
Flowers was tried six times for the 1996 murders of four people. He always maintained his innocence.
Prosecutor Doug Evans repeatedly excluded Black prospective jurors; four convictions were overturned, and two trials ended in mistrials.
In 2019, the Supreme Court overturned his latest conviction, ruling that racial discrimination had tainted jury selection.
According to The Associated Press, Justice Clarence Thomas wrote a scathing dissent opposing the decision to overturn Flowers’ conviction, declaring that Mississippi was free to convict him again. That would have meant a seventh trial.
Flowers was released in December 2019, and all charges were dropped in 2020.
His sister said Flowers had suffered from advanced diabetes. His cause of death has not been announced.
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