Curtis Flowers, Mississippi man wrongfully convicted after being tried for the same killings 6 times, dies at 56

October 8, 2026 / 2:56 PM EDT / CBS News

Curtis Flowers, a Black man from Mississippi who was wrongfully convicted multiple times when he was tried six times for the same crime by the same prosecutor, has died. He was 56.

Flowers' family confirmed that he died Wednesday at his home in Mississippi, attorney Rob McDuff told The Associated Press on Thursday.

No cause of death was given, said McDuff, who was part of Flowers' legal team.

CBS News has reached out to McDuff and the coroner.

Flowers' struggle with the justice system began in Winona, Mississippi, on a July morning in 1996, when the owner of Tardy Furniture, a bookkeeper, a delivery man and a 16-year-old were shot in the head execution-style.

Flowers briefly worked at the furniture store that summer, but he was let go after he stopped showing up after only three days. Police questioned him after the murders, but didn't arrest him at the time. Flowers later moved to Texas to live with his sister, and he was arrested there in January 1997. He had no prior criminal history.

McDuff previously called Flowers' case "unprecedented in the history of the American legal system."

He told…

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