In The Dark - S2 E19: Freedom

Episode Date: September 4, 2020

After 24 years, the case against Curtis Flowers is finally over. Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch asks the judge to dismiss the charges against Flowers for lack of evidence. Flowers is released from house arrest and free – truly free – at last. Read the story. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

This is In the Dark. I'm Madeline Barron. I'm coming to you today with some big news. The Mississippi Attorney General has just announced that she is dropping the case against Curtis Flowers. After 24 years and six trials, the case is over. And Curtis is finally, truly free. Curtis Flowers was just 26 when he was arrested for the murders of four people at Tardy Furniture in Winona, Mississippi. He was tried before an all-white jury and found guilty and sentenced to death.

He appealed and he won, but he was tried again and again, on and on. Six trials total. Years awaiting execution. In a solitary cell, on death row, in Parchman Prison. We started reporting on Curtis' case about three years ago. We moved to Mississippi. All right, let's do this. We talked to hundreds of people.

Nice to meet you, Madeline. Nice meeting you. It ain't too many. When my mind is off of him, I think about him all the time. Witnesses for the state told us they lied under oath. For years, he up telling me he killed some people. Hell no, he ain't never told me that. We found that the science that was used to convict Curtis

really wasn't science at all. That is absolute nonsense. We identified an alternate suspect in the case. Did you commit the murders at Tardy Furniture? Did you? Doug threw more than 100,000 documents. We have now scanned all trial files at all eight courthouses. And we discovered a decades-long pattern

of racial discrimination in jury selection by the office of the white district attorney, Doug Evans, who prosecuted Curtis Flowers at all six of his trials. The prosecution struck black jurors almost four and a half times the rate at which they struck white jurors. After we released our reporting, things started to change. People around the country began calling Doug Evans' office

to complain about his handling of the case. Curtis received so many letters of support delivered to his prison cell, they could barely keep up with reading all of them. A local paper called on Doug Evans to remove himself from the case. And the U.S. Supreme Court took Curtis' case. We conclude that the state did violate Batson. And reversed his conviction.

For all those reasons, we reversed the judgment of the Supreme Court of Mississippi. A few months later, a judge released Curtis on bail, and Curtis walked out of jail and into the arms of his family. I'm so excited right now. D.A. Doug Evans removed himself from the prosecution, and the case went to the Mississippi Attorney General's office. And Curtis has been waiting under house arrest in an undisclosed location to find out whether he would be put on trial yet again, for a seventh time.

Then, just a few hours ago, the Attorney General of the state of Mississippi filed a motion with the court. It said the state no longer had strong evidence against Curtis. It said, quote, It went on to say, quote, This was a reference to Odell Hallman, who told us that his testimony about Curtis's confession was all a fantasy. Moreover, the motion said, the court was made aware of alternative suspects with violent criminal histories, an apparent reference to Willie James Hemphill, as well as possible exculpatory evidence not previously considered. The motion concluded,

not previously considered. The motion concluded, based on the totality of circumstances, it is in the interest of justice that the state will not seek an unprecedented seventh trial of Mr. Flowers. And so, the Attorney General of the state of Mississippi was dropping the case against Curtis Flowers. Almost immediately, Judge Joey Loper, the same judge who presided over Curtis's last two trials and who granted Curtis bail back in December, issued an order granting the motion. And just like that, the case against Curtis Flowers was over. We tried to reach the Attorney General, Lynn Fitch, but she declined to comment. A spokesperson from her office sent us a statement. It said, quote,

As a general rule, General Fitch intends to refrain from seeking media coverage on individual prosecutions in an effort to desensationalize this very serious process for the individuals involved. The families here deserve that respect. Hi, this is David Remnick, and I'm pleased to share the news that I'm Not a Robot, a live-action short film from the New Yorker's Screening Room series, has been shortlisted for the Academy Awards.

This thought-provoking film grapples with questions that we can all relate to about identity and technology, and what it means to be human in an increasingly digital world. I encourage you to watch I'm Not a Robot, along with our full slate of documentary and narrative films, at newyorker.com slash video. Curtis and his family decided not to talk to reporters today. In a statement, his family said they wanted today to be a private day, for the family to reconnect. But earlier today, a group of defense attorneys who've worked on

Curtis's case over the years gathered on a Zoom call to talk to our reporter Parker Yesko and our producer Samara Fremark. How are you guys all feeling today? Socially distanced, Jew belief. There was Henderson Hill, an experienced death penalty litigator. It's a wonderful feeling. It's delayed, but it's sweet. There was attorney Sherry Johnson, who argued Curtis's case before the U.S. Supreme Court. Good day!

There was Tucker Carrington, who heads the Mississippi Innocence Project. Lawyer Rob McDuff, from the Mississippi Center for Justice, who took over after the Supreme Court reversed Curtis's most recent conviction. And there was Jonathan Abram, an attorney from a big firm, Hogan Lovells. We're all just on cloud nine. This afternoon, when the legal team found out that the attorney general had filed the motion dropping the charges, they all got together and called up Curtis. Well, we talked some shit about the Dallas Cowboys first, and then we got around the business. That business was telling Curtis that he was finally free.

Our paralegal, Ashley Johnson, who has just been an incredible force of nature through all of this, was the one that we all agreed would be the person to tell Curtis. And so that's what happened. And there were tears, and it was, you know, one of the great moments. Just had a wonderful time talking and he was very excited. And then we arranged to have the monitor person call him and tell him how to take it off. Curtis had been under house arrest for months now. He'd been wearing an ankle monitor. And now, today, he could finally take it off.

He took it off while we were on the call, all by himself, because the monitor guy was able to send a signal to the ankle monitor to tell it, okay, let him take it off. And then he pushed something or something and it came off. So while we were on the call, the ankle monitor was removed. or something and it came off. So while we were on the call, the ankle monitor was removed. So what does the news today mean for Curtis's case? Is this, is it over? Is it really actually over? They cannot prosecute him again. He's off of bond. His ankle monitor is off. He is totally out from under these charges after, you know, 23 and a half years. Two words stood out in Judge Loper's order dismissing the case. The case was dismissed with prejudice.

With prejudice. To dismiss a case with prejudice basically means that it cannot be tried again, that the case is actually finally over. is actually finally over. If it's dismissed without prejudice, you know, the prosecutor can let it go for two or three years and then bring it back. But here we don't have to worry about, you know, Doug Evans coming back behind the attorney general and charging Curtis again. That can't happen. We don't have to worry about a new attorney general coming into office and say, oh, I want to go charge Curtis Flowers. That can't happen. So that's exactly what it means. Did you see this as any sort of statement about Evans and the way this has been prosecuted before?

Yeah, I don't think any of us want to go there. Oh yeah, I think the order speaks for itself. But I think there is one thing to say, and that is when responsible prosecutors took over the case, you see the result. That result for Curtis and his lawyers was a good one, a joyful one, one of the lawyers called it. And Curtis's lawyer, Rob McDuff, said that journalism played a big role in that result. The dismissal of the charges today is the resultant and part of the work that you all have done within the dark because of the evidence you found during your very, very detailed investigation, and it really, really raised the profile of the injustice in this case,

has helped to provide the conditions that led to where we are today. And yet, Curtis had still lost almost half of his life. 23 years. Gone. Spent behind bars. It's hard to wrap your mind around the years, but I'll just say this. I teach my class the other night. I've got a couple students in my class who weren't born yet when Curtis was locked up. But if you look at the evidence as presented to the jury, he should not have been convicted. So, I mean, I feel very happy at this result.

I feel happy that a neutral examination led to the right result, but he shouldn't have been prosecuted in the first place. And there are more of those people out there, too. And you're all's data that you collected on all the felony cases, you know, through the tenure that Doug Evans, I mean, I would venture to guess that every single one of those cases has a colorable issue of race bias. What about all those people? of race bias. What about all those people? The work that Hogan Lovells did with all the other capital cases of Doug Evans. What about all those cases? And, you know, we won this case, but what this case did was not solve the problem, really, but draw back the curtain on what is a systemic issue. I look back on this case and I think of all of the events that had to flip positively

for this outcome to happen. The Supreme Court had to grant cert. That was by no means a sure thing. by no means a sure thing. You know, and so many other things had to flip positively for this outcome to occur. And to me, that alone says everything you need to know about all the other cases, because everything doesn't always flip the way it ought to flip in the criminal justice system. in the criminal justice system. What are you guys going to do for the rest of your evening? Kind of sign off Zoom. Yeah.

Move on to the next case. Move on to the next case. There is one more step that could happen. When someone's been wrongfully convicted and imprisoned, they can sometimes get money from the state to compensate them. In Mississippi, the state will pay $50,000 for each year wrongfully spent behind bars. It caps out at a half million dollars. But this money isn't guaranteed. To get it, Curtis would need to go through a separate process, and that could take a while, like months, or even longer. As for Curtis himself,

although he decided not to talk to reporters today, he did release a written statement. In that statement, Curtis said, quote, Today, I am finally free from the injustice that left me locked in a box for 23 years. I want to say that I believe there are other men, men that I met on the row, whose cases deserve to be heard and considered. I've been asked if I ever thought this day would come. I've been blessed with a family that never gave up on me, and with them by my side, I knew it would. With their love, staying in the Word of God,

with the determination of my legal team, and the countless letters and words from my supporters the day I've prayed for is here at last Curtis thanked his lawyers his supporters and his family he mentioned his mother Lola flowers it made me think of this time a few years ago when I I was sitting with Mrs. Flowers in her living room in Winona. She said something that stuck with me ever since. Yes, Lord.

I said, now God's going to work this thing out. I do believe. Might not be when we want to, but He's going to do. Curtis is coming out. The way Mrs. Flowers saw it, no matter how many trials it took, no matter how many court appearances, how many days in prison, how many long phone calls, eventually, one day, her son Curtis would be free.

Mrs. Flowers didn't live to see this moment. She died two years ago. In his statement today, Curtis said, quote, Mom, I hope you're taking a minute to smile down on me. As far as we know, there are no plans to reopen the investigation of the murders at Tardy Furniture. Earlier today, we made one more call. We called the man who'd spent almost his entire career prosecuting the case against Curtis Flowers, District Attorney Doug Evans. The prosecutor who intentionally struck Black people from the juries, who relied on junk science, who offered

deals to jailhouse informants, who then lied on the stand. The prosecutor whose misconduct over six trials is the reason the case against Curtis Flowers dragged on for so long. The man who even now, even after the Supreme Court found he violated the Constitution, is still the top prosecutor in this part of Mississippi. is still the top prosecutor in this part of Mississippi. We called Doug Evans at his office in Grenada. An employee picked up the phone and told us Doug Evans was not available. In the Dark is reported and produced by me, Madeline Barron,

managing producer Samara Fremark, producer Natalie Jablonski, associate producer Raymond Tungakar, and reporter Parker Yesko. This series was edited by Catherine Winter. The editor-in-chief of APM Reports is Chris Worthington. This episode was mixed by Corey Schreppel. Original music for this series by Gary Meister. Photography for this series by Ben Depp.

Additional help on this episode from Lauren Humpert. Hi, this is David Remnick. I'm proud to share the news that three films from the New Yorker documentary series have been shortlisted for the Academy Awards. And they are Incident, Seat 31, Zoe Zephyr, and Eternal Father. And they all immerse you in the finest cinematic journalism, exploring themes of justice, identity, and the bonds that shape us. exploring themes of justice, identity, and the bonds that shape us. These extraordinary films, which were created by established filmmakers as well as emerging artists, will inform, challenge, and move you. I encourage you to watch them along with our full slate of documentary and narrative films at newyorker.com slash video.