Curtis Flowers, Mississippi man exonerated by Supreme Court, dies at 56

Curtis Flowers, a man whose legal battles became a landmark case for the U.S. Supreme Court, has died at the age of 56. His family confirmed his death occurred Wednesday at his home in Winona, Mississippi. No cause of death has been released.

Flowers spent 22 years on death row for the 1996 killings of four people at a furniture store. His case gained national attention because he was tried six times for the same crime. In 2019, the Supreme Court overturned his conviction in a 7-2 decision, with Justice Brett Kavanaugh noting that the prosecutor had unconstitutionally struck Black prospective jurors, depriving Flowers of a fair trial.

Despite the Supreme Court ruling, Flowers remained in custody for several months before being released on bond in December 2019. Mississippi officially dropped all charges against him in 2020. Throughout his legal ordeal, prosecutors argued he was a disgruntled former employee, though no DNA evidence linked him to the crime and the murder weapon was never recovered.