In a federal courtroom in Savannah, Georgia today, a parade of eye-witnesses admitted to perjury.  At the 1991 trial of Troy Davis, witnesses described seeing him shoot police officer Mark Allen MacPhail.  Others testified that Davis had confessed to the killing. 

Why would so many people lie about what they saw and heard back in 1989? 

Intimidation.  Recanting witnesses claim that they were threatened and bribed by investigators desperate to bring a cop-killer to justice.

Prosecutors claim the recantors had criminal records, some of them extensive.  But that’s just the point.  Ex-offenders are infinitely vulnerable to prosecutorial manipulation.  A childhood friend of Mr. Davis says he testified at trial because he was a street hustler and was afraid the police would hang a drug charge on him. (more…)

(This post is part of a series concerning Curtis Flowers, an innocent man convicted of a horrific crime that has divided a small Mississippi town.  Information on the Flowers case can be found here.)

Alan Bean, Friends of Justice

Curtis Flowers has been sentenced to die by lethal injection.

The moment the jury was seated, a conviction was a foregone conclusion.  Over the years, Winona has woven a guilt-narrative around Curtis Flowers.  White Winona sees Curtis Flowers as a cold-hearted killer, nothing more.  Black people who know the good-natured gospel singer shake their heads in bewilderment when they hear white folks talk about him.  The Curtis of popular white imagination does not exist.

The jurors seated for the sixth Curtis Flowers trial could have rendered a guilty verdict without hearing a word of testimony–they already knew the story as well as the folks commenting on the Friends of Justice website.

The next phase of the process is a justice struggle that could take years.  But the case against Curtis is too weak to stand.  Exposed to proper scrutiny, it will crumble to dust.  Most of the thousands of people currently reading this website every day will lose interest.  That’s natural.  But the quest for justice will continue nonetheless.  I am asking you to join us in this quest.  We deeply appreciate the support you have shown over the last two weeks.  Lydia and Alan Bean will be returning to Texas later today after speaking to a group of civil rights veterans in Neshoba County and will have more to say about the Flowers trial in the days to come

(This post is part of a series concerning Curtis Flowers, an innocent man convicted of a horrific crime that has divided a small Mississippi town.  Information on the Flowers case can be found here.)

Alan Bean, Friends of Justice

Curtis Flowers has been found guilty on all four capital murder counts.  No surprise there, but I wasn’t prepared for a twenty-seven minute jury (non)deliberation.  That’s right, twenty-seven minutes.  Hardly long enough to pick a jury foreman.

The courtroom quickly filled up with the kind of folks who have been leaving derogatory comments on our blog.  One older man rushed up the courthouse steps as I was emailing supporters.  “I guess I’m late,” I heard him say, “but maybe not.”

“They’re just starting the sentencing phase,” another man replied.

“That’s the part I’m looking for,” the first man exulted.

He will have to wait until tomorrow morning.  The defense put on an elaborate and lengthy mitigation case highlighted by the testimony of corrections expert James Aiken.  He testified that he had to sit down with Curtis Flowers for two face-to-face meetings because he couldn’t believe that a man locked up for almost fourteen years doesn’t have a single disciplinary write-up.  Aiken testified that manipulative inmates can put up a good front for a short time, but anyone who holds up for over a decade is an exceptional inmate.

The disconnect was almost surreal.  There is a very good reason why Curtis Flowers has a discipline record bordering on the miraculous–he is 100% innocent.  He simply doesn’t fit the killer profile.  His detractors have done a good job of demonizing Mr. Flowers over the years, but anyone who has sat down with the man (as I did for forty-five minutes Wednesday night) can’t help but be impressed with his gentle faith and quiet confidence.

The sentencing hearing got under way with several representatives of the victims families testifying.  The room was in tears as Roxanne Ballard explained that her children were too young in 1996 to know the woman she used to be.  One of Carmen Rigby’s sons talked about the horror of losing a mother on the verge of college.  The grief in the room was palpable.

Unfortunately, the victim families will find little solace in the conviction of an innocent man.  I suspect they know that.  Curtis Flowers has long been the fifth victim of the Tardy tragedy.  Sentencing him to death does nothing to bring solace to the grieving families.

Several potential jurors who swore they could put their deep affection for the victims families aside if they were named to the jury joined the celebrants in the courtroom this evening.  I suspect they still think they could have been fair and impartial, but the joy on their faces tonight suggested otherwise.

Several family members testified that Curtis was devoted and fun-loving.  Archie Flowers, talked about the day Curtis joined his gospel group, the Unionaires.  “I kept asking him to start singing in public,” Archie recalled, “but he just told me he’d let me know when he was ready.”

A video clip of Curtis singing lead for the Unionaires was then played.  There was something eery about a younger, slimmer Curtis Flowers belting our a gospel tune on the screen while his father looked on from the jury box.

“I’m afraid we’re going to have to interrupt this presentation,” Judge Loper broke in.  “I’m told the pizzas for the jurors have arrived and we don’t want the food to get cold.”

On the way out of the courthouse, the father of one of the slain victims confronted Curtis Flowers’ sister, Priscilla.  “We always knew that nigger was guilty anyway,” he barked.  Sheriff’s deputies quickly descended on the scene.  The same man had approached me earlier in the day as well.  I had been fielding insults all week long, and was running short on patience.  “If you want to try out a clever insult, I’m not interested,” I snapped.

Moments later, I apologized.  People don’t get over the kind of tragedy that engulfed Winona fourteen years ago.  On the other hand, a personal tragedy is no excuse for boorish behavior; especially when the crude remark is aimed at the sister of a man about to be sentenced to death by lethal injection.

The packed courthouse received the verdict without an outcry.  After twenty-seven minutes, everyone knew what was coming.

I will have more to say about the sentence in a day or two.  The jury will almost certainly hand Curtis Flowers another death sentence.  There is no big surprise here.  We were hoping for a better result, but when a jury of eleven whites and one black was selected the writing was on the wall.  That’s okay; every successful campaign Friends of Justice has launched began with a conviction (sometimes several).  This case is simply too weak to stand.

So enjoy the party while it lasts, Winona; brighter days lie ahead for Curtis Flowers and his loved ones.

(This post is part of a series concerning Curtis Flowers, an innocent man convicted of a horrific crime that has divided a small Mississippi town.  Information on the Flowers case can be found here.)

On Tuesday morning, the Winona perjury parade ground to a halt.  Bonita Henry is one of several witnesses in this legal marathon who are no longer capable of testifying.  She appeared courtesy of a brief excerpt from the 2004 trial transcript.  Ms. Henry said she was sitting on her porch between 9:00 and 9:30 on the morning of the murders when she saw Curtis Flowers walk by.  He was wearing white shorts and a T-shirt.

I was hoping the defense attorney in the transcript would ask if Curtis had a .380 automatic stuck inside the elastic waist band of his shorts–but the question never came. (more…)

(This post is part of a series concerning Curtis Flowers, an innocent man convicted of a horrific crime that has divided a small Mississippi town.  Information on the Flowers case can be found here.)

“Where there’s smoke, there’s fire.”  The prosecution of Curtis Flowers rests on this bit of folk wisdom.  Curtis told investigators he never strayed onto the east side of Highway 51 on the morning in 1996 when four innocent people were murdered execution-style at the Tardy furniture store.  One witness seeing Curtis Flowers on the east side of the highway might be mistaken, but the state has half- a-dozen witnesses making this claim.

With that much smoke there must be a fire some place.  Right?

Or are we all being duped by an elaborate fog machine?

Strip the eye-witness testimony from this case and nothing remains but junk science. (more…)

(This post is part of a series concerning Curtis Flowers, an innocent man convicted of a horrific crime that has divided a small Mississippi town.  Information on the Flowers case can be found here.)

Lacey McLaughlin of the Jackson Free Press addresses the elephant in the Montgomery County Courtroom.  The article pasted below gets at the real reason there is only one black juror on the jury in Curtis Flowers’ sixth trial.

Majority White Jury in Flowers Trial

by Lacey McLaughlin

June 10, 2010

The fate of Curtis Flowers, a man on trial for the sixth time, is now in the hands of a jury consisting of 11 whites and one African American in Montgomery County where the racial make up is 54 percent white and 44 percent African American. (more…)

(This post is part of a series concerning Curtis Flowers, an innocent man convicted of a horrific crime that has divided a small Mississippi town.  Information on the Flowers case can be found here.)

Criminal cases built on circumstantial evidence and questionable eye-witness testimony encourage what I call the “duck-rabbit syndrome”.  You can see a duck, you can see a rabbit; but you can’t see both at the same time.  Faced with spotty evidence, the human mind fills in the gaps.  Nature, as they say, abhors a vacuum.

The analogy isn’t perfect.  You can look at the duck-rabbit and see the duck, then the rabbit, then the duck again.  With a circumstantial case like State of Mississippi vs. Curtis Giovanni Flowers, the duck people can’t see the rabbit and vice versa.

Those sitting on right side of the Montgomery County courtroom see a guilty duck; the folks on the left see an innocent rabbit.  I write from the rabbit side of the room.

Late Saturday afternoon, in a surreal duck-rabbit confrontation, several Friends of Justice representatives were surrounded by a dozen family members of the four people who were senselessly murdered at Winona’s Tardy Furniture store on July 16, 1996.

The confrontation began with an ostensibly sincere question about the mission of Friends of Justice.  The man asking the question, I soon learned, was a son of Carmen Rigby, the Tardy Furniture business manager who died in the most heinous crime in Winona’s history.  He wanted to know how we could possibly look at the evidence in this case and think Curtis Flowers was anything but stone-cold guilty.     (more…)

(This post is part of a series concerning Curtis Flowers, an innocent man convicted of a horrific crime that has divided a small Mississippi town.  Information on the Flowers case can be found here.)

Curtis Flowers is almost certainly innocent and will almost certainly be sentenced to death.

The resentful glares are growing more intense in the Winona courtroom as people figure out who we are and what we represent.  There is a strong sense that this case is a local matter and should be dealt with locally.

If you have lived in a small town you understand what is happening.  Any person, black or white, who holds out for acquittal in this case will never be forgiven and will never be welcome in the community.  It was true in Tulia, Texas; it was true in Jena, Louisiana; it is true in Winona, Mississippi.

In the courtroom, things are not going well.  Testimony yesterday centered on the crime scene.  The testimony of Sam Jones, the black octogenarian who stumbled on the bodies of four innocent murder victims on the morning of July 16, 1996 was read to the jury.  Police Chief Johnny Hargrove, the second person on the scene, testified, as did a representative of the emergency medical team that arrived shortly thereafter.

The final three-and-a-half hours of court time was devoted to Melissa Schoene (pronounced Shay-knee), the forensic scientist who examined the crime scene.  The evidentiary significance of Ms. Schoene’s testimony could have been elicited in ten minutes of examination and cross.  She arrived in Winona shortly after 1:00 pm.

The body of Bobo Stewart had been removed by EMT personnel because he was still clinging to life.

The bodies of Robert Golden and Carmen Rigby lay in front of the main counter.

Bertha Tardy lay face down in an aisle at the back of the store.

She photographed the pool of blood that had formed near Bobo Stewart’s head because his heart and lungs were still functional.   She took a picture of a partial footprint in the blood. (more…)