Madeleine Baran: This is Madeleine Baran, host of In the Dark. I'm coming to you late Friday night with a special update on some breaking news that happened just hours ago in the case of Curtis Flowers. Friday afternoon, the US Supreme Court announced on its website that it will take Curtis Flowers case, that the court will hear Curtis' appeal and will decide whether his conviction should be overturned. It's what lawyers call granting cert, and this decision by the court to take Curtis' case is extraordinary. Every year the Supreme Court receives thousands of petitions, often as many as 7 or 8,000, and of that number, the court only takes about 100 or so. Often the cases the court does take are ones it believes have national significance. As soon as I heard the news, I called one of Curtis lawyers on this appeal, a public defender in Jackson, Mississippi named Alison Steiner. Alison Steiner: This is Alison. Madeleine Baran: Alison. It's Madeleine Baran calling. Alison Steiner: Oh, well gee, you weren't the first person to call. We're very excited. Madeleine Baran: I can imagine. Do you mind if I just record real briefly with you? Alison Steiner: Sure. Madeleine Baran: Okay, so yeah. This just happened. So what did you think when you saw it? Alison Steiner: I thought, "This is wonderful." It is a tremendous moment. Well, let's put it this way. I've been practicing law 43 years. This is only the second time this has happened to me in 43 years of law practice, Madeleine Baran: Wow. That the US Supreme Court has decided to actually hear a case that you brought up before it? Alison Steiner: Yeah. Madeleine Baran: Have you told Curtis? Alison Steiner: I have not been able to reach the office that would let me call him, has closed by the time we got this Madeleine? Madeleine Baran: Oh no. Alison Steiner: I'm almost tempted to drive up to Parchman and try and break into the prison to tell him, but yes. Madeleine Baran: Were you expecting this? Alison Steiner: I was hoping for it. Madeleine Baran: But the court almost never Grants cert. I mean it gets thousands of cases and grants almost none of them. Alison Steiner: That is true, but I like to believe that, as important as Curtis's case is to anybody who knows Curtis or knows the facts of what's happened in this case, I like to think that the United States Supreme Court is still very interested in making sure that the justice system that it is in charge of operates fairly and is not, in my view, poisoned by racial discrimination. Madeleine Baran: Here's what Alison Steiner's talking about. The court will look at a critical issue in Curtis's case. The issue of alleged racial discrimination by the District attorney Doug Evans in jury selection. Throughout Curtis Flower's six trials, Curtis's lawyers have tried to convince the courts that Doug Evans has intentionally struck black people from the juries because of their race, in violation of the US Constitution and twice the defense succeeded in convincing a court of this. It happened in Curtis's second trial, and it happened in the appeal of Curtis's third trial, but in his sixth trial, that's the latest one, in 2010, it was different. That jury was also almost all white, but when Curtis appealed that conviction, he lost. So Curtis kept appealing all the way to the US Supreme Court, and the Supreme Court sent it back down to the Mississippi Supreme Court and asked it to take another look at the case, but the Mississippi Supreme Court didn't change its mind. The state Supreme Court upheld the conviction. So then Curtis went back to the US Supreme Court one more time to try to convince the court to take his case. Curtis's lawyers told the US Supreme Court that the State Supreme Court in Mississippi had gotten the case wrong. They argued that the Mississippi Supreme Court hadn't carefully considered whether Doug Evans the DA had intentionally discriminated against black people in violation of the US Constitution. As part of Curtis's appeal, a group called the Magnolia Bar Association filed what's known as a friend-of-the-court brief, and in that brief, they cited the analysis that our team had done of jury selection throughout Doug Evans entire tenure as D. The analysis that found that Doug Evans DA's office struck black people from juries at nearly four and a half times the rate it struck white people. Alison Steiner: The work you did, I think is vastly important to this case and at some point will I hope persuade someone that Curtis should not ever be tried, his case should be reversed and he should never be tried again. Madeleine Baran: Alison Steiner told me that she thinks that the fact that the court took the case is a sign that they might rule in Curtis's favor and actually overturn his conviction. Alison Steiner: Well, it is often said that the US Supreme Court does not take cases just to affirm what the court below did. We must be optimistic and I think we have reason to be, that this is a case that it would be very difficult for this court to brush aside. Unfortunately, for Curtis, this doesn't change anything. He goes to bed tonight on death row and he wakes up tomorrow morning on death row because until relief is actually granted, that's where he stays. Madeleine Baran: I wanted to find out what the DA, Doug Evans made of all this, so I called his office late this afternoon, but no one answered. I also reached out to the Mississippi Attorney General's office, that's the office that's representing the state in the appeal. I wanted to find out if the Attorney General, Jim Hood had anything he'd like to say about the court's decision. A spokesperson got back to me and sent me an email saying, "Pre-trial publicity rules prevent us from commenting on ongoing cases." Late this afternoon, I also decided to call Curtis Flowers father, Archie Flowers. I reached him at his house in Winona. What do you think Curtis will make of it? Archie Flowers: He probably be happy. Yeah, I talked to him earlier. Madeleine Baran: How was he doing earlier? Archie Flowers: He was doing fine. He didn't say nothing about it. So he didn't know. Madeleine Baran: Yeah, it just happened. This is some big news. Archie Flowers: Oh, right. That's good. Lord going to work now. Yeah, the Lord. Working. Yeah, make me sleep better tonight. Madeleine Baran: Makes you sleep better tonight? Archie Flowers: Yeah. Madeleine Baran: Yeah. All right. Well, yeah, have a good rest of your night. Archie Flowers: Okay. You too. Madeleine Baran: All right, take care. Archie Flowers: You too. Madeleine Baran: Thanks. Bye. Archie Flowers: Good night. Madeleine Baran: In the coming months, the U.S Supreme Court is expected to ask both sides, the defense and the state, to file written briefs. After that, the justices could decide to schedule oral arguments in the case. Alison Steiner told me that she expects that the lead attorney for the defense, Attorney Sherri Lynn Johnson of the Cornell Death Penalty Project or another Cornell Death Penalty lawyer on the team, Keira Weibel would argue the case for the defense. The Supreme Court will announce its decision in the case of Curtis Giovanni Flowers versus Mississippi, no later than June of 2019.