Flowers v. Mississippi
Flowers v. Mississippi | |
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Court membership | |
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Case opinions | |
Majority | Kavanaugh, joined by Roberts, Ginsburg, Breyer, Alito, Sotomayor, Kagan |
Concurrence | Alito |
Dissent | Thomas, joined by Gorsuch (Parts I, II, and III) |
Flowers v. Mississippi, No. 17–9572, 588 U.S. ___ (2019), is a United States Supreme Court decision regarding the use of peremptory challenges to remove black jurors during a series of Mississippi criminal trials for Curtis Flowers, a black man convicted on murder charges. The Supreme Court held in Batson v. Kentucky that the use of peremptory challenges solely on the basis of race is unconstitutional.[1] This case examined whether the Mississippi Supreme Court erred in how it applied Batson to this case.[2] The Supreme Court ruled that Flowers' case fell under Batson and that the state inappropriately removed most of the potential black jurors during the trials.
Case background
The sixth trial, held in 2010, found Flowers guilty of all four crimes, and he was sentenced to death. The jury here included one African-American juror—the first one questioned by the prosecutor who subsequently used his remaining peremptory challenges to dismiss five additional African-American jurors. Flowers appealed to the Mississippi Supreme Court again arguing on the peremptory challenges. The Mississippi Supreme Court upheld the verdict.
Flowers re-petitioned to the US Supreme Court, which granted certiorari to the case in November 2018.[6] The case was limited to the question of whether the Mississippi's oversight of the prosecution's past use of peremptory challenges in Flowers' prior trials was proper within the scope of the Batson challenge. Oral arguments were heard on March 20, 2019.
Opinions
Majority opinion by Brett Kavanaugh
On June 21, 2019, in a 7–2 decision authored by Associate Justice Brett Kavanaugh, the Court held that the Flowers case clearly fell under Batson and the Mississippi Supreme Court erred in upholding the trial court's conviction.[7] In its history of 6 trials prosecuting Flowers for murder, the previous 5 of which ended in mistrials or vacated convictions, the state struck 41 of the 42 prospective black jurors.[8] Some of the selected white jurors had similar answers to struck black jurors and when the prosecutor was asked for explanations other than race for excluding the jurors, the prosecutor also gave inaccurate or provably false explanations for excluding black jurors.[9]
Concurrence by Samuel Alito
Samuel Alito wrote a concurrence. Alito stated that he believes this was “a highly unusual case” that was likely “one of a kind.” Alito also stated that this was “not an ordinary case, and the jury selection process cannot be analyzed as if it were.”[2]
Dissent by Clarence Thomas
Clarence Thomas wrote the dissenting opinion, which was joined in part by Neil Gorsuch, stating that they would have upheld Flowers’ conviction. Thomas suggested that the prosecution's use of their peremptory challenge was appropriate as most of those dismissed knew of Flowers and his family and thus would be biased on a jury.[10] Thomas’ opinion suggests Batson v. Kentucky (1986), which forbids prosecutors from using race as a factor in making peremptory challenges in jury selection, was wrongly decided and should be overruled. Gorsuch, however, did not join the section of Thomas’ opinion suggesting Batson should be overruled.[2]
Subsequent events
State prosecutors officially dropped the charges against Flowers on September 4, 2020, with the state's attorney general's office stating that it would be nearly impossible to convict Flowers on any charges at this point due to the conflicts with the past court records being considered unusable leaving them with no new living witnesses.[11]
See also
- In the Dark (podcast), an American Public Media podcast whose 2nd season examined Flowers' case
References
- ^ a b Batson v. Kentucky, 476 U.S. 79 (1986).
- ^ a b c Flowers v. Mississippi, No. 17-9572, 588 U.S. ___ (2019).
- ^ Flowers v. State, 158 So. 3d 1009 (Miss. 2014).
- ^ Flowers v. Mississippi, 136 S. Ct. 2157 (2016).
- ^ Flowers v. State, 240 So. 3d 1082 (Miss. 2017).
- ^ Flowers v. Mississippi, 139 S. Ct. 451 (2018).
- ^ Stern, Mark Joseph (June 21, 2019). "Brett Kavanaugh's Latest Opinion Protects Black Defendants Against Racist Prosecutors". Slate Magazine. Retrieved June 21, 2019.
- ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved June 22, 2019.
- ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved June 22, 2019.
- The Los Angeles Times. Retrieved June 21, 2019.
- ^ Bogel-Burroughs, Nicholas (September 4, 2020). "After 6 Murder Trials and Nearly 24 Years, Charges Dropped Against Curtis Flowers". The New York Times. Retrieved September 4, 2020.
External links
- Text of Flowers v. Mississippi, No. 17–9572, 588 U.S. ___ (2019) is available from: Google Scholar Justia Oyez (oral argument audio) Supreme Court (slip opinion)