Curtis Flowers faces 6th trial in Winova Mississippi

The trials of Curtis Flowers have been dogged by misconduct

Curtis Flowers who has been tried for an quadruple murder in Winona, Mississippi in July of 1996. It has been alleged that Curtis Flowers murdered Bertha Tardy because she had shorted him, $82 from his pay. Flowers worked at the furniture store for three days just prior to the July 4th, weekend in 1996. When Curtis did not return to work after the holiday and he contacted Ms. Tardy he was informed that he had been replaced.

Prosecutor Doug Evans claims this provided Flowers with a sufficient motive for the most vicious murder in Winona history.

Curtis Flowers first 5 trials resulted in 2 mistrials and 3 convictions that were overturned. At the end of the 5th trial,

Juror James Bibbs was charged with perjury at Curtis Flowers fifth trial and held in prison overnight for voting against a conviction against Curtis Flowers. James Bibbs who is an outstanding citizen was charged with perjury that was later dropped against him. He has been sentenced to death three times, only for each verdict to be overturned on appeal because of what the Mississippi Supreme Court described as prosecutor misconduct. In one further trial, the jury failed to agree after dividing broadly on racial lines.

The district attorney, desperate to score a conviction in such a high-profile case, has played dirty to win.

One of his tricks, exposed by a refreshingly impartial Mississippi Supreme Court, was to fiddle the jury selection to exclude black jurors. Winona is a very racial city in Mississippi with the civil rights records in the United States.

Dispite the unlawful holding of Curtis Flowers in my point of view of having to be charged for a sixth time, he now has to deal with local state senator. Lydia Chassaniol who has introduced a bill that would widen the jury pool in such a way that critics say would make it easier to select an all-white jury.

Senator Chassaniol is a member of a local chapter of the right-wing Council for Conservative Citizens and addressed their annual conference. the nature of this rump of the red-neck, good 'ole white boys, confederate-flag-wavers is striking.

Their hatred of inter-racial marriage, homosexuals, liberals (aka communists) identifies an atavistic streak that still remains 150 years after slavery.

As one of them told me: "It's all right for them (non-whites) to practice their culture but they should not take ours away from us. We are probably the most discriminated race in the country."

Badges like these show that racial tensions remain in Mississippi How will Curtis Flowers now fair with a 6th trail for the same charges with the racism that runs high in the state of Mississippi? How many times can Curtis Flowers be held for trial in the same crime. http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080101131005AAEOome http://www.freeadvice.com/law-questions/can-you-be-charged-twice--4911.htm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_jeopardy

Crossing Continents: Mississippi Smouldering is broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on Thursday, 26 November 2009 at 1100 GMT and repeated on Monday, at 2030 GMT.

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http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8377236.stm http://friendsofjustice.wordpress.com/curtis-flowers/