JACKSON - The attorney for death row inmate Curtis Giovanni Flowers has argued that his client was denied a fair trial because prosecutors sought to keep blacks off his Montgomery County jury.
"Such jury strikes are unfair to the jurors themselves," David Voisin of Jackson argued Wednesday to the Mississippi Supreme Court. "It says not a single one is fit to serve in a high profile case … race discrimination in jury selection casts doubt on the fairness of a trial."
Flowers, 35, who is black, was convicted in 2004 of capital murder in the deaths of four people during a shooting spree at a Winona furniture store in 1996. Death penalty cases are automatically reviewed by the Supreme Court.
Twice before, Flowers was convicted of capital murder involving one of the victims and each time his conviction and death sentence were thrown out on appeal.
In 2004, Flowers was convicted of all four murders - store owner Bertha Tardy, 59; store employees Derrick Stewart, 16, and Carmen Rigby, 45; and delivery man Robert Golden, 42. Flowers also was convicted of robbing the store of at least $400 that was in the cash drawer.
Prosecutors said Flowers, who had been fired from his job at the business, had not received his last paycheck. They said Tardy, the store's owner, had kept the check as payment for golf cart batteries she felt Flowers had damaged.
Defense attorneys claimed Flowers was at a relative's home at the time of the murders. They argued that no one saw Flowers go in or come out of the store on the day of the murders.
Voisin argued that prosecutors struck the first 12 blacks from the jury pool and that their explanations, while convincing to the trial judge, failed to have any support in the court record.
Since 1986, prosecutors have been barred from disqualifying potential jurors based on their race. One thing prosecutors must show is that they had a race neutral reason to excuse a potential juror.
Assistant Attorney General Judy Martin said there have been many capital murder cases where blacks have been excluded from juries and the Supreme Court has upheld convictions.
Martin said the pool of potential jurors for Flowers' trial totaled 600. She said few of the initial 300 called survived the first round of questioning by lawyers.
"Not every black juror was struck. There were black jurors that served on this jury," she said.
Justice Mike Randolph said the trial opened with a jury of 10 whites and two blacks, but a black juror was removed when he said he couldn't be fair and was replaced. He said the "aberration in the numbers" was what the defense was arguing as proof of discrimination.
Flowers' jury was comprised of 11 whites and one black.
Martin said there was nothing in the record to suggest that prosecutors set out to keep blacks off the jury or that the trial judge erred in accepting their reasons for striking blacks from the jury pool.
There was no indication when the Supreme Court would rule in the case.
Copyright 2006 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
