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    • In the Dark

    S2 E8: The D.A.

    Not Trained to Not Kill

    Most states neglect ordering police to learn de-escalation tactics to avoid shootings

    Order 9066

    Chapter 6: Resistance

    Featured Documentaries

    APM Reports has produced more than 140 audio documentaries on topics such as health, history, education and justice.

    • Hard to Read: How American Schools Fail Kids with Dyslexia
      Hard to Read

      How American schools fail kids with dyslexia

    • Trump Immigration
      Shadow Class

      College dreamers in Trump's America

    • What It Takes
      What it Takes

      Two high-poverty schools chase better graduation rates

    • frank
      Shackled Legacy

      History shows slavery helped build many U.S. colleges and universities

    • Keeping Teachers
      Keeping Teachers

      Black men and teachers in rural areas are in especially short supply

    •  
      Rewriting the Sentence

      College behind bars: Keeping an idea alive

    Be informed: Get notified when APM Reports publishes new stories.

    The Educate Podcast

    • Domonique Crosby raises her hand in calculus class

      Louisiana ends policy that held thousands of students back a grade or more

      June 15
    • students on the sundial

      Liberal arts face uncertain future at nation's universities

      June 4
    • Hokitika Primary School in New Zealand.

      Giving parents more freedom to choose doesn't guarantee better schools

      May 21
    • Mario Martinez at Montgomery College in Maryland

      'I never want to be in a neighborhood where I'm shot at again'

      May 7

    Recent Stories

    dot pie

    Mississippi D.A. has long history of striking many blacks from juries

    We gathered data on juries in central Mississippi going back 26 years. Analyzing hundreds of trials, we found that prosecutors were more than four times more likely to exclude black jurors.

     

    The rise and reign of Doug Evans

    by Parker Yesko

    How to spend 26 years in office.

    District attorney Doug Evans' office in Grenada, Mississippi.

    S2 E8: The D.A.

    After investigating every aspect of the Curtis Flowers case, we were nearly ready to present what we'd found to District Attorney Doug Evans. But first we tried to learn all we could about him: his childhood, his years as a police officer and his record as district attorney. Then, finally, we met the man who's spent more than two decades trying to have Flowers executed.

    Curtis Flowers trial 6 venire

    How did Curtis Flowers end up with a nearly all-white jury?

    In 2010, a jury of 11 whites and one African-American convicted Flowers and sentenced him to death. Defense attorneys would later claim the trial essentially had been decided in jury selection. Here's how it went down.

    Montgomery County Courthouse in Winona, Mississippi.

    Why a nearly all-white jury might be legal

    by Will Craft

    When is a strike legal? Take our quiz below and try to spot an unconstitutional strike, using potential jurors from trials in the Fifth Circuit Court District, where Doug Evans is district attorney, and the reasons given for striking them.

    Jurors for the trial of Roy Bryant and J.W. Milam

    Acquitting Emmett Till's killers

    by Parker Yesko

    There was overwhelming evidence that J.W. Milam and Roy Bryant had murdered the 14-year-old in 1955, but they never spent a day in prison thanks to an all-white jury.

    Montgomery County Courthouse in Winona, Mississippi

    S2 E7: The Trials of Curtis Flowers

    There's one critical aspect of the Curtis Flowers case that we haven't looked at yet — the makeup of the juries. Each of the four times Flowers was convicted, the jury was all white or nearly all white. So we decided to look more closely at why so few black jurors had been selected. And it wasn't always happenstance.

    Odell Hallmon testifying at Curtis Flowers' sixth trial in 2010.

    What does Odell Hallmon's reversal mean for the Curtis Flowers case?

    by Parker Yesko

    The jailhouse informant's testimony helped win a conviction — and his recantation might scuttle it.

    Guards, Mississippi State Penitentiary in Parchman.

    Letter from Parchman: Inside Mississippi's notorious prison

    by Parker Yesko

    The state penitentiary began more than a century ago as a way to subjugate African-Americans after the end of slavery, and it later maintained segregation well into the 1970s. And it's where Curtis Flowers has spent much of his adult life, sometimes in brutal conditions.

    Moon over cotton field, Parchman, Mississippi

    S2 E6: Punishment

    Odell Hallmon, the state's key witness in the Curtis Flowers case, is serving three consecutive life sentences. We wondered what he might say now that there are no deals to cut, and he will spend the rest of his days in prison. Would he stick to his story that Flowers had confessed to the Tardy Furniture murders? We wrote him letters and sent him a friend request on Facebook. Weeks went by and we heard nothing. And then, one day, he wrote back.

    Odell Hallmon

    S2 E5: Privilege

    No witness has been more important to the prosecution's case against Curtis Flowers than Odell Hallmon. He testified in four trials that Flowers had confessed to him while the two men were in prison together. Hallmon has an astonishingly long criminal history that includes repeated charges for drug dealing, assault, and robbery. So how reliable is his testimony and did he receive anything in exchange for it? In this episode, we investigate the veracity of the prosecution's star witness.

    Doug Evans, Clemmie Flemming

    What exactly are prosecutors allowed to do?

    by Parker Yesko

    They can rely on jailhouse informants, if the testimony is true.

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