DA who tried Curtis Flowers six times removes himself from further involvement

District Attorney Doug Evans has recused himself from further involvement in the case of Curtis Flowers.

Evans has tried Flowers an unprecedented six times for the murders of four people at the Tardy Furniture Company in Winona, Miss. On July 16, 1996, Bertha Tardy, 59, owner of the store, and three employees, Carmen Rigby, 45, Robert Golden, 42, and Derrick Stewart, 16, were gunned down at the store.

Evans has doggedly pursued Flowers in his prosecutions; however, he stands accused of violating the constitution to get convictions. In four of the six trials, Evans secured guilty verdicts against Flowers, but each time, the verdicts were overturned on appeal due to prosecutorial misconduct. In the last appeal, which went to the U.S. Supreme Court, the court held that Evans inappropriately excluded African Americans from the jury, and the court vacated the verdict. Flowers is African American. Two trials with racially balanced juries ended in hung juries.

Evans is asking that the Mississippi Attorney General’s office take over the case as lead prosecutor.

“I have personally prosecuted the defendant in all six of his prior trials,” Evans said in the recusal motion filed Monday with the Montgomery County Circuit Court. “While I remain confident in both the investigation and jury verdicts in this matter, I have come to the conclusion that my continued involvement will prevent the families from obtaining justice and from the defendant being held responsible for his actions.”

In December, Circuit Court Judge Joseph Loper approved Flowers’ request for bond allowing Flowers to be out of prison for the first time in more than two decades. Flowers spent most of 23 years since his arrest on death row. His bond was set at $250,000.

Flowers’ attorney, Rob McDuff of the Mississippi Center for Justice, believes Evans’ recusal is the right thing to do.

“Doug Evans had no business staying on this case, and we are pleased he recused himself,” McDuff said in a statement. “We look forward to what we hope will be an impartial review of this case by the new attorney general of Mississippi.”

The case took on more urgency in 2018 after the APM Reports podcast “In the Dark” revealed evidence pointing to other suspects and featured interviews with key witnesses admitting they lied under pressure from Evans.

“As the trial judge indicated when granting bail, the evidence of innocence has become even more clear since the last trial,” McDuff said. “There is no reason to continue wasting taxpayer money and putting everyone through a seventh trial. Curtis Flowers is innocent. This misguided prosecution has been plagued from the beginning by misconduct and racial discrimination, and it is time to bring it to an end.”

The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund sued Evans in November for racial discrimination, claiming he eliminated potential African American jurors through peremptory strikes at 4.4 times the rate of white jurors.

Families of the victims maintain that Flowers is guilty.