Supreme Court Strikes Down Murder Convictions on Grounds of Racial Bias

Clemmie Flemming points out to prosecutor Doug Evans, center, where she spotted Curtis Giovanni Flowers on the morning of four slayings at Tardy Furniture in Greenwood, Miss., on June 14, 2010. Taylor Kuykendall/The Commonwealth via AP, File

WASHINGTON—The Supreme Court struck down a black inmate’s murder convictions and death sentence because the white man who prosecuted him on behalf of Mississippi unconstitutionally excluded blacks from the jury at his final trial and at others that preceded it.

Curtis Giovanni Flowers, 49, was condemned to death for murdering four employees of the now-closed Tardy Furniture store during a 1996 robbery in Winona, Mississippi, a small town with a population of 5,000.