Day 9 of the Curtis Flowers Murder Trial; Defense Begins Its Case

Dr. Alan Bean, a forensic historian, is covering the trial of Curtis Flowers in Winona, Mississippi. Flowers, an African American, is on trial for the sixth time on the same murder charges -- setting a judicial record. The following comes from Bean, this morning:

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.

Tardy Furniture store in Winona, Mississippi

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.

Curiously, neither the state nor the defense asked if the witness remembered seeing Mary Jeanette Fleming heading west while Curtis was walking east. A couple of days ago, Ms. Fleming testified that Curtis passed her just a few seconds after he passed Ms. Henry, only this time he was wearing a pair of black dress pants, a dress shirt and a jacket.

Continue here -- (and please consider contributing to Friends of Justice to help pay Dr. Bean's expenses. Because of his work, several major media organizations have written about this travisty).

Mississippi Legislature Impacts Black History Month: Bill Considered Will Mean All White Jury in Flowers Case

From the AP and Friend of Justice:

Mississippi lawmakers are considering a bill that could have an impact on the long-running capital murder case of a Montgomery County man accused of killing four people at a furniture store nearly 15 years ago.

Curtis Flowers is set to be tried a sixth time later this year for the 1996 murders at Tardy Furniture store in Winona.

The case has nearly depleted Montgomery County’s jury pool, and is one of the reason legislators have been asked to approve a proposal to expand the area from which jurors are selected, said Circuit Court Lanelle Martin.

The Senate on Wednesday approved a bill that would allow counties to pull prospective jurors from an entire multicounty circuit district. Currently, jurors are sought from the county in which the crime occurred.

Flowers is charged with capital murder in the shooting deaths of Winona furniture store owner Bertha Tardy, 59; store employees Derrick “BoBo” Stewart, 16, and Carmen Rigby, 45; and delivery man Robert Golden, 42.

Flowers has had three trials in Winona, one in Tupelo and one in Biloxi. Two resulted in mistrials and three in convictions that were later overturned. Prosecutors have said they will seek the death penalty in the trial scheduled for June at the Montgomery County Courthouse.

Continue --