Jan. 7 (UPI) — A Mississippi prosecutor who has tried a man six times for the same murders has recused himself from the case.
District Attorney Doug Evans of the fifth Circuit Court District filed a voluntary recusal Monday in Montgomery County, asking the court to appoint the state attorney general’s office as lead prosecutor in the case concerning Curtis Flowers.
Evans has tried Flowers six times in connection to the killing of four people at a furniture store in 1996. Flowers was found guilty in four of those trials, with the first three convictions being overturned due to prosecutorial misconduct.
His last conviction in his sixth trial in 2010 was brought before the Supreme Court in June and the Justices overturned that decision and death sentence, stating that Evans had violated the law by excluding black jurors from the proceedings. The other two trials ended in a hung jury.
In each of Flower’s six trials, he faced an all-white jury.
“I have personally prosecuted the defendant in all six of his prior trials. 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,” Evans said in his recusal.
Flower’s attorney Rob McDuff of the Mississippi Center for Justice said in a statement his team is “pleased” with Evan’s recusal and hopes that this will lead to an eventual dismissal for his client.
“We look forward to what we hope will be an impartial review of this case by the new attorney general of Mississippi,” he said.
Evans’ recusal follows Judge Joseph Loper granting Flowers bail mid-December on a $25,000 bond.
In his decision to grant Flowers bail, Loper said if a new trial should be scheduled, the prosecution will be “faced with the prospect of having to present a far weaker case to the jury than it’s had in the past.”
McDuff said that there is no reason to continue “wasting taxpayer money” on a seventh trial, calling for the trial to be dismissed.
“Curtis Flowers is innocent,” McDuff said in the statement. “This misguided prosecution has been plagued from the beginning by misconduct and racial discrimination, and it is time to bring it to an end.”
