After Decades In Prison, A Man Who Was Ruthlessly Pursued Walks Out

Judge banging a gavel in a courtroom
William Anderson
December 23, 2019

Curtis Flowers just walked out of prison after 23 years and 6 trials. The state of Mississippi tried its hardest to execute him, but they’ve officially failed. 

This bad case - and an egregiously racist jury selection process - put his story on the map. Now, the injustice against this Black man is being discussed worldwide.

District Attorney Doug Evans tried Curtis Flowers six times, using his power to make sure there were NO Black people on the jury. 

He struck 41 out of 42 Black people from potentially serving. After the sixth time, he was sentenced to death… but the Supreme Court stopped that.

The 7-2 Supreme Court ruling overturned the conviction because the case was clearly biased against Flowers. 

Bail was set at $250,000, but thankfully someone posted the $25,000 needed for him not to be behind bars. Instead, he’ll wear a monitoring device while he waits to learn if he’ll be tried for a seventh time. So, he’s not completely off the hook - but he’s happy to finally be on the outside!

The unconstitutional racial discrimination against Flowers is simply not okay. Many believe, if he’s not going to be freed altogether, he at least deserves a new trial - and with these recent events, his family is optimistic.

This process has looked like a legalized lynching of Curtis Flowers.

After all, how many times have we seen cases like this before, where Black people served decades or were even executed under racist circumstances? 

Here’s to hoping this won’t turn out like so many others!

We have a quick favor to ask:

PushBlack is a nonprofit dedicated to raising up Black voices. We are a small team but we have an outsized impact:

  • We reach tens of millions of people with our BLACK NEWS & HISTORY STORIES every year.
  • We fight for CRIMINAL JUSTICE REFORM to protect our community.
  • We run VOTING CAMPAIGNS that reach over 10 million African-Americans across the country.

And as a nonprofit, we rely on small donations from subscribers like you.

With as little as $5 a month, you can help PushBlack raise up Black voices. It only takes a minute, so will you please ?

Share This Article: