Photo of Curtis Flowers
Curtis Flowers, a Black Mississippi man who spent nearly 23 years imprisoned for a crime he did not commit, died at his home on October 7, 2026, at age 56. His case came to embody both the human cost of racial discrimination in jury selection and the endurance required to survive it.
Over the course of six trials, Mr. Flowers received four death sentences, with two trials ending in mistrials. According to the Innocence Project, the district attorney failed to secure a conviction whenever more than one Black juror was selected. In Mr. Flowers’ fourth and fifth trials, the juries were more diverse — seven white and five Black jurors in the fourth, and nine white and three Black jurors in the fifth — and both deadlocked. The ALCU reports on the impact of diverse capital juries, finding that they spend more time deliberating, make fewer errors, and can result in fairer trials.
The threat of racial violence also permeated Mr. Flowers’ case. Shortly before his second trial, his parents’ home burned down; soon after the tragedy his mother learned of the following threat from a white resident: “If they let that n****r go, another house is going to burn.”
Flowers v. Mississippi (2019) became a national symbol of racial bias in jury selection after the U.S. Supreme Court voted 7 – 2 to overturn Mr. Flowers’ conviction. The Court found that now-retired prosecutor Doug Evans had discriminated against Black prospective jurors, violating the principles established in the Court’s 1986 decision in Batson v. Kentucky (1986).
The disparity in Mr. Flowers’ sixth trial was stark. Montgomery County, Mississippi, had a 45% Black population at the time, yet the jury pool was only 8.3% Black. Writing for the majority, Justice Brett Kavanaugh emphasized the role race played throughout Mr. Flowers’ trials, describing the pattern in unmistakable terms:
“The State’s relentless, determined effort to rid the jury of [B]lack individuals strongly suggests that the State wanted to try Flowers before a jury with as few [B]lack jurors as possible, and ideally before an all-white jury.”
Mr. Flowers’ case did not stand apart from the broader record of jury discrimination in the state. A 2018 investigation by American Public Media Reports found that, between 1992 and 2017, prosecutors in Mississippi’s Fifth Circuit District removed Black prospective jurors at nearly 4½ times the rate of white prospective jurors. Even after controlling for race-neutral factors raised during jury questioning, Black prospective jurors remained far more likely to be struck than similarly situated white prospective jurors.
But Mr. Flowers’ story is not only defined by injustice, but by the support of his family. After his release, he shared, “I’ve been asked if I ever thought this day would come. I have been blessed with a family that never gave up on me and with them by my side, I knew it would.” According to news reports, he spoke with his mother, Lola Gibson Flowers, almost every day. For two decades, she and his father drove every other week to visit him on death row.
Curtis Flowers and one of his attorneys, Henderson Hill
Those who knew Mr. Flowers remembered the endurance and gentleness that remained with him through nearly 23 years of confinement. In a statement issued on behalf of his legal team, Tucker Carrington, director of the George C. Cochran Innocence Project at the University of Mississippi, reflected:
“One of Curtis’ favorite hymns was the traditional African-American lament, ‘I Couldn’t Hear Nobody Pray.’ In one of many versions, the singer makes a request of God: that, if it be His will, He ‘remove this bitter cup.’ Curtis’ cup was bitter, but he was not. He was gentle. And he endured. For that, his name is etched into U.S. Supreme Court jurisprudence — about what it means to fight for a fair trial free from racial bias in the selection of jurors. And also for that, but for so many other reasons, his name is etched into our memories, too — professional and personal. We will miss him.”
The Mississippi Center for Justice, whose attorneys also represented Mr. Flowers, likewise reflected on both his life and the broader injustice revealed by his case:
“The racial discrimination that tainted Curtis’s case through six trials reflects a much larger problem in Mississippi and throughout the country.”
“Through our participation, we had the privilege of representing and getting to know Curtis Flowers, a truly wonderful person. And we were able to highlight and fight against the injustice that put him in prison and that permeates the legal system in which we work.”
- Bonner, T. (2026, October 22). “A Symbol of Racial Bias”: Remembering Curtis Flowers and the Impact of Flowers v. Mississippi. Death Penalty Information Center. Retrieved October 22, 2026, from https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/a-symbol-of-racial-bias-remembering-curtis-flowers-and-the-impact-of-flowers-v-mississippi
- Bonner, Taylor. “‘A Symbol of Racial Bias’: Remembering Curtis Flowers and the Impact of Flowers v. Mississippi.” Death Penalty Information Center. October 22, 2026. Accessed October 22, 2026. https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/a-symbol-of-racial-bias-remembering-curtis-flowers-and-the-impact-of-flowers-v-mississippi.
- Bonner, Taylor. “‘A Symbol of Racial Bias’: Remembering Curtis Flowers and the Impact of Flowers v. Mississippi.” Death Penalty Information Center, 22 Oct. 2026, https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/a-symbol-of-racial-bias-remembering-curtis-flowers-and-the-impact-of-flowers-v-mississippi. Accessed 22 Oct. 2026.
Sources: Taylor Vance, Curtis Flowers, wrongly imprisoned after enduring six trials, dies at 56. Mississippi Today. October 7, 2026; Trip Gabriel, Curtis Flowers, whose case became a symbol of racial bias, dies at 56. The New York Times. October 9, 2026; Ashely Burrell, Six Trials, One Unbroken Spirit: What Curtis Flowers’ Story Teaches Us About Criminal and Racial Justice Reform. The Innocence Project. October 16, 2026; Will Craft, How did Curtis Flowers end up with a nearly all-white jury? APMReports. June 5, 2018;