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  • In the Dark
    The latest on the Curtis Flowers case

    On June 21, the U.S. Supreme Court reversed Curtis Flowers' conviction for the 1996 murders of four people at the Tardy Furniture store in Winona, Mississippi.

    Though Flowers' conviction and death sentence have been vacated, he's not free. The indictments charging him with capital murder — handed down years ago by a Montgomery County grand jury — still stand. Whether Flowers goes to trial a seventh time, and how quickly it happens, depends on a number of factors, including the strength of the state's case against him and District Attorney Doug Evans' willingness to drop the charges or negotiate a plea deal. Below, we'll post developments as they happen.

    NOW
    Curtis Flowers is being held in pretrial detention at a jail in Winston County, Mississippi. Judge Joey Loper will likely decide whether Flowers is granted bail at a hearing on Dec. 16.
    Dec 9
    Flowers' bail hearing moved to Winona
    Judge Joey Loper orders Curtis Flowers' upcoming bail hearing, scheduled for Dec. 16, to be held at the courthouse in Winona, rather than in Walthall as originally planned. Loper's order explains that the hearing had been assigned to the Walthall courthouse due to a scheduling issue that's since been resolved. The hearing in Winona will begin at 10 a.m. Read.
    Dec 2
    Judge orders bail hearing for Flowers
    Circuit Judge Joey Loper sets a Dec. 16 hearing date on Curtis Flowers' motion for bail. The motion, filed by Flowers' attorney in September, argued that Flowers doesn't pose a threat to his community and must be granted bail because an obscure Mississippi law requires it for defendants who've had two trials for capital crimes end in hung juries, as Flowers' fourth and fifth trials did. District Attorney Doug Evans has yet to respond. The bail hearing will be held at 11 a.m. at the courthouse in Walthall. Read.
    Nov 27
    Flowers' lawyer asks for a hearing on bail
    Rob McDuff requests a bail hearing for his client, Curtis Flowers, who's been in a county jail since his release from Parchman prison on Sept. 23. The request follows a motion filed Sept. 19, which asked Circuit Judge Joey Loper to set a "reasonable" bail so that Flowers can stay with his family while awaiting a possible seventh trial. Loper initially ordered District Attorney Doug Evans to respond to the motion by Nov. 1, but later extended the deadline at the prosecution's request. McDuff wants a hearing by Dec. 13, arguing that, "The nature of bail is such that a delay is tantamount to a denial." Read.
    Nov 18
    Doug Evans sued for using race in jury selection
    The NAACP and four black plaintiffs take Mississippi prosecutor Doug Evans to court to halt the "odious practice" of "racially discriminatory jury selection." Read.
    Oct 31
    Judge Loper grants an extension
    Prosecutors now have more time respond to two motions from Curtis Flowers' defense team: one seeking dismissal of the charges and another seeking bail for Flowers.

    Judge Joey Loper had given Doug Evans' office 30 days to respond to those motions on Oct. 2. Evans' office sought an extension, and Loper granted it. The judge's order states that new deadlines will be set in the "near future." Read.
    Oct 11
    Defense seeks Doug Evans' recusal from Flowers case
    Curtis Flowers' lawyers file a motion asking Judge Joey Loper to remove Evans from the case. "District Attorney Doug Evans has not yet publicly stated whether he will prosecute this case in the months to come or whether he will voluntarily step aside," the motion reads. "Pending a decision ... the Defendant does not want to be perceived as having somehow acquiesced [to] Mr. Evans' participation." The motion is short — arguing that Evans should be recused because of his misconduct in Flowers' earlier trials — and preemptive. Rob McDuff, Flowers' lawyer, promises to submit a more detailed list of reasons for Evans' recusal if the district attorney refuses to hand the case off to another prosecutor.

    Evans hasn't yet filed anything in the Flowers case since it returned to Montgomery County. But pressure may be mounting on him. A local newspaper recently published a searing editorial, calling Evans' role in the case "beyond repair" and arguing that "Evans is only making it less likely that a conviction will stick if he stays associated with the case." And Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood, who's currently running for governor, reportedly told a journalist at a recent campaign event that he has "communicated with Evans about the case and offered his support to assist." Read.
    Oct 3
    Noted North Carolina attorney joins Flowers' defense
    Henderson Hill joins Curtis Flowers' legal team ahead of a possible seventh trial. Hill is a longtime opponent of capital punishment with expertise in death penalty trials and appeals. "The justice system's serial abuse of Curtis Flowers — poor, black and innocent — must and will stop," Hill says in a statement. "I am honored to work ... to achieve that to which Mr. Flowers is so deeply entitled: a full measure of justice and vindication." Read.
    Oct 2
    Judge Loper orders Evans to respond to defense motions
    In his first official action since Flowers' case landed back in Montgomery County court, Circuit Judge Joey Loper orders prosecutors to submit a written response to the two motions filed by Flowers' lawyers on Sept. 19. Those motions requested dismissal of all charges against Flowers and that a reasonable bail be set for his release. Loper's order requires District Attorney Doug Evans to respond within 30 days. It's expected that Evans will oppose the motions and that Loper will schedule a hearing before ruling on them.
    Sept 24
    Hemphill caught with machete
    Willie James Hemphill — an early suspect in the Tardy Furniture murders with a long criminal record — is charged with disorderly conduct. He was "swinging a machete and causing a disturbance" at about midnight on Sept. 20 at the Indianapolis trailer park where he lives, according to court records. He'd apparently become agitated after being pepper-sprayed by a woman whose trailer he'd approached while spouting profanities. After being Maced, Hemphill reportedly yelled, "I'll be back for you bitches with something else," and then went to his own trailer to retrieve his machete. When another neighbor attempted to intervene, Hemphill "charged at him while holding the machete over his head." Hemphill was taken to jail and released the following afternoon. A hearing is scheduled for Oct. 7.
    Sept 24
    Flowers leaves Grenada County Jail, moves to Winston County jail
    After less than a day at the Grenada County Jail, Flowers is transferred to the Winston-Choctaw County Correctional Facility in Louisville, Mississippi, an hour southeast of Winona. Booking officer Phyllis Jenkins says that he'll be housed in a single cell and allowed contact visits with his family.

    It's unclear what led to the move. Grenada Sheriff Alton Strider said the day Flowers spent at the jail in Grenada was uneventful. Read.
    Sept 23
    Flowers leaves Parchman prison, moves to Grenada County
    Curtis Flowers is transferred off of death row and out of Parchman prison, as expected following the reversal of his conviction and death sentence by the U.S. Supreme Court in June. He is moved into pretrial detention at the county jail in Grenada, Mississippi. Read.
    Sept 19
    Flowers' defense files motions for bail, dismissal
    Curtis Flowers' case finally makes it back down to the Montgomery County trial court where it began. His lawyer, Rob McDuff, immediately files two motions — one requesting bail, the other that the case be dismissed — that vividly preview how he plans to attack the state's case against his client.
    "There has never been any physical or forensic evidence connecting Flowers to the crime; the motive and methods ascribed to Flowers by the prosecution are objectively improbable; the witnesses relied upon to make up the circumstantial case for guilt have by turns been contradictory, unbelievable, or non-probative; and the prosecution has relentlessly excluded African-Americans from jury service."
    The motions are likely to come before the same judge who presided over Flowers' fifth and sixth trials, Mississippi Circuit Judge Joey Loper. A hearing is expected in the fall. Read.
    Sept 5
    Evans slams SCOTUS decision in local paper
    In an interview with The Winona Times, District Attorney Doug Evans bluntly dismisses the high court's 7-2 decision overturning Curtis Flowers' conviction.
    "I think it was a ridiculous ruling," Evans said. "They basically said there was nothing wrong with the case and reversed it anyway."
    This is Evans' most revealing public statement since Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote in June that Evans violated the U.S. Constitution with his "relentless, determined effort to rid the jury of black individuals" in Flowers' trials. Read.
    Aug 29
    Mississippi Supreme Court vacates Flowers' conviction and death sentence
    On orders from the U.S. Supreme Court, the Mississippi Supreme Court formally reverses Flowers' 2010 conviction. The action, largely a formality, sends the case back to the trial court in Montgomery County, where it will ultimately be retried, pled out or dismissed. Read.
    July 23
    SCOTUS sends case back to Mississippi
    After holding onto the case for several weeks following its decision (as required by its rules), the U.S. Supreme Court sends Flowers' case back down to Mississippi, with orders that the state Supreme Court enter the reversal. Read.
    July 2
    Clemmie Fleming becomes the second major prosecution witness to publicly recant
    Clemmie Fleming, long the only living person to put Flowers on the same side of town as the murders, tells In the Dark that she's never known what day she saw Flowers running near Tardy Furniture. Fleming, who testified in all six of Flowers' trials, became the prosecution's most important witness after Odell Hallmon recanted to In the Dark last year. Read.
    July 2
    Flowers' legal team announces new lawyer
    Rob McDuff, a Mississippi civil rights attorney, takes over the helm of Flowers' defense. McDuff, who's won several cases at the U.S. Supreme Court, says that the charges against Flowers should be dismissed without another trial.
    June 27
    Doug Evans still in good standing
    Adam Kilgore, general counsel for the Mississippi Bar, which handles attorney discipline in the state, tells In the Dark that he can't confirm or deny the existence of any bar complaints against District Attorney Doug Evans. "Presently, he is active and in good standing. But matters can change. If the committee ends up reviewing a bar complaint, they will look at it and make an informed decision," Kilgore says. "A case just being reversed does not automatically mean that an attorney has committed an ethics violation." Evans is running unopposed for re-election in 2019.
    June 24
    Doug Evans speaks
    District Attorney Doug Evans tells his hometown newspaper, The Grenada Star, that Curtis Flowers "will have to be retried." Read.
    June 21
    Willie James Hemphill's alibi falls apart
    In the Dark reporters confront Hemphill, an early suspect in the Tardy Furniture murders, inside an Indianapolis courthouse. When they tell Hemphill that the alibi he offered them for the morning of July 16, 1996, didn't check out, Hemphill becomes hostile and abruptly ends the interview. Read.
    June 21
    Mississippi AG doesn't want the case
    Attorney General Jim Hood tells reporters that he won't take over the Flowers case. "I don't have the authority to go take a case away from a DA," Hood says, according to the Associated Press. Hood says that he doesn't want DA Doug Evans to offer him the case, either, because Hood doesn't have enough prosecutors in his office to handle it (though one of his prosecutors did argue the case before the U.S. Supreme Court in March). Hood is running for governor this fall. Read.
    June 21
    Curtis Flowers wins appeal at U.S. Supreme Court
    In a 7-2 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court overturns Curtis Flowers' 2010 conviction and death sentence. The court finds that District Attorney Doug Evans intentionally struck black prospective jurors at Flowers' sixth trial, in violation of the U.S. Constitution. In the court's majority opinion, Justice Brett Kavanaugh writes that "the State's relentless, determined effort to rid the jury of black individuals strongly suggests that the State wanted to try Flowers before a jury with as few black jurors as possible, and ideally before an all-white jury." Read.
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