Curtis Flowers, Exonerated Death Row Inmate, Passes Away at 56
WHO:
ABC News - Curtis Flowers, a Black man who was wrongfully convicted.
ABC News - Rob McDuff, attorney who confirmed Flowers' death.
ABC News - Doug Evans, District Attorney involved in Flowers' trials.
ABC News - Flowers' legal team, who represented him for over two decades.
WHAT:
ABC News - No cause of death was given for Curtis Flowers.
ABC News - Flowers was described by prosecutors as a disgruntled former employee who sought revenge against the store’s owner because she fired him and withheld
ABC News - Curtis Flowers died at the age of 56.
ABC News - Flowers spent more than 22 years in prison and was on death row before his conviction was overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court.
ABC News - Flowers was tried six times for the shooting deaths of four people in a furniture store.
ABC News - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled 7-2 in 2019 that Flowers was denied a fair trial due to the removal of Black jurors.
ABC News - Flowers was released in December 2019 after a judge set bond.
ABC News - Mississippi dropped charges against Flowers in September 2020.
ABC News - A judge ordered the state of Mississippi to pay Flowers $500,000 for wrongful imprisonment.
CBS News - An attorney described Flowers' case as "unprecedented in the history of the American legal system."
WHERE:
ABC News - Flowers died at his home in Mississippi.
ABC News - The shooting occurred in Winona, Mississippi.
WHEN:
ABC News - Flowers was arrested several months after the July 1996 shooting.
ABC News - Flowers was sentenced to death during his sixth trial in 2010.
ABC News - Flowers was released in December 2019.
ABC News - Mississippi dropped charges against Flowers in September 2020.
ABC News - Evans retired in 2023 after more than 30 years as district attorney.
WHY:
ABC News - Prosecutors described Flowers as a disgruntled former employee seeking revenge after being fired.
ABC News - The Supreme Court found that the removal of Black jurors deprived Flowers of a fair trial.
HOW:
ABC News - Flowers was tried six times, with three convictions being overturned due to jury selection issues.
ABC News - Evans struck five Black prospective jurors, resulting in an all-white jury during Flowers' sixth trial.
ABC News - Flowers filed a lawsuit in 2021 against Evans and investigators for misconduct.
(UPDATED October 8, 2026 22:04 UTC)
Curtis Flowers has passed away, although no cause of death has been provided. Prosecutors previously characterized Flowers as a disgruntled former employee who sought revenge against the store's owner after being fired and having his pay withheld. This situation has raised significant attention due to the circumstances surrounding his actions and the subsequent legal proceedings.
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(UPDATED October 8, 2026 21:05 UTC)
Curtis Flowers, a Black man who was wrongfully convicted and spent over 22 years in prison, has died at the age of 56 at his home in Mississippi. Flowers was tried six times for the shooting deaths of four people in a furniture store, with the U.S. Supreme Court ultimately ruling that he was denied a fair trial due to the removal of Black jurors, leading to his release in December 2019. His legal team represented him for more than two decades, and in September 2020, Mississippi dropped all charges against him and a judge ordered the state to pay Flowers $500,000 for wrongful imprisonment.