WINONA - The state Supreme Court is standing by a decision to overturn a death penalty conviction in a high profile Winona murder case.
Today, Lola Flowers, the mother of Curtis Giovanni Flowers, is pleased with the court's decision Thursday.
"I am really happy with their decision. I don't think he should have to go through another trial though. Another trial might be better because he'll have a new jury. I just hope the trial won't be back in Lee County," she said.
She said she expects to hear from her son today when he calls from Parchman. She last spoke to him Tuesday.
Two different juries sentenced Flowers to death in 1996 killings at Tardy Furniture Store, where he once worked.
The Supreme Court reaffirmed a May ruling that Flowers' trial in the death of Bertha Tardy, owner of the store, was flawed. He will get a new trial in the slaying.
The decision opens the door to more appeals next year of Flowers' other conviction.
Flowers has denied shooting Mrs. Tardy, 59, and three other people on July 16, 1996. She had fired him earlier in a dispute over broken batteries.
Frank Ballard, Mrs. Tardy's son-in-law, declined to comment on the Supreme Court's ruling.
District Attorney Doug Evans also was not available this morning.
Flowers' attorney, Keith Ball of Louisville, said, "This is a 100 percent circumstantial evidence case. My heart's desire is that Curtis Flowers gets a fair trial. To date, I don't think that has occurred."
Justice Jim Smith said prosecutors' biggest mistake in the 1997 trial in Lee County was introducing evidence about the other three murders instead of only focusing on Tardy's killing.
Flowers had wanted to be tried once in all four deaths, but prosecutors insisted on separating the charges.
Smith said the prosecutor, in asking jurors to give Flowers the death penalty, talked of Flowers killing four people.
"The cumulative effect of the prosecutor's pattern of repeatedly citing to the killing of the other three victims throughout the guilt phase proceedings leads us to hold that Flowers was absolutely denied a fundamental right to a fair trial," Smith wrote in the reissued ruling.
The killings had shocked the town of Winona, a 6,000-resident north Mississippi community. The victims included Derrick Stewart, a 16-year-old star athlete and part-time store employee, and two other workers.
