WINONA — The sixth murder trial of Curtis Giovanni Flowers should focus on guilt or innocence and not race, Judge Joseph Loper said Tuesday.
Flowers is charged with a 1996 quadruple homicide at Tardy Furniture store in Winona. Jury selection continued today. About 70 potential jurors were left as of Tuesday.
Defense attorney Alison Steiner claimed the prosecution has been using racially discriminatory techniques to try to eliminate jurors. She said District Attorney Doug Evans’ question of which jurors had been sued by Tardy Furniture during jury selection was inappropriate.
Black and white jurors said they had accounts with Tardy Furniture. However, of the few potential jurors who had been sued for their accounts, all were black.
Flowers is black. Three of the four victims were white.
Loper said the questions were not discriminatory. All people on the panel were asked whether they had been sued by Tardy Furniture, and no one was singled out, he said.
“This case is not about black and white. It’s right or wrong, guilt or innocence. That’s what this case is about,” Loper said. “I have to say up to this point I have not seen any issue that would indicate that there is anything discriminatory about any question (Evans) has asked.”
After Steiner criticized the prosecution’s methods, Loper said she had overstepped her role as defense attorney by attacking the prosecutor’s character.
“You have the right to defend your client, but you don’t have the right to conduct character assassinations, which is exactly what you are doing at this point,” Loper said.
Race has been an issue in jury selection in previous Flowers trials.
Flowers was convicted during his third trial, but the conviction was thrown out because the Supreme Court found prosecutors had used racial discrimination during jury selection, using all 15 strikes on blacks.
The defense also was denied a request to bar the prosecution from seeking the death penalty.
Steiner said the prosecution had not sought the death penalty during the 2007 trial of Flowers and thus should not be allowed to seek stricter charges now.
Loper said that from his reading of the transcript, the death penalty was not sought because of a deal between the defense and prosecution regarding a last-minute witness.
He added that from his reading, her allegations of misconduct were not accurate.
“The law is just not on your side with what you’re saying, and the facts aren’t either,” he said.
The court began interviewing people individually Tuesday evening to determine how much they knew about the case. Many of those interviewed Tuesday had at least some knowledge of the case, and some said they had followed it closely.
