Madeleine Baran: At 8:00 this morning, our reporters, Rehman Tungekar and Curtis Gilbert, knocked on the door of Archie Flowers, Curtis Flowers' father. Rehman Tungekar: Good morning, Mr. Flowers. Hi, how are you? May we come in? Archie Flowers: Come on in. Rehman Tungekar: Thank you so much. Madeleine Baran: They sat down on the couch, Raymond pulled out his phone, and together they waited. Rehman Tungekar: I am just going to pull up the Supreme Court website. Archie Flowers: That's right. Rehman Tungekar: Connected. Madeleine Baran: They waited to see if today would be the day that a decision would come down from the U.S Supreme Court in the case of Curtis Flowers versus the state of Mississippi. Rehman Tungekar: What's going through your mind right now? Archie Flowers: Just praying about it. I hope everything turned out right. Madeleine Baran: And then... Rehman Tungekar: It's nine o'clock right now. The Supreme Court announced a decision; they reversed it. They overturned his conviction. MUSIC: (Instrumental music) Archie Flowers: Yes, Lord. It's the Lord's will. Madeleine Baran: The Supreme Court by a vote of seven to two overturned Curtis Flowers' conviction for the 1996 murder of four people in Tardy Furniture. Curtis Gilbert: The Supreme Court has thrown out the murder conviction of a Mississippi death row inmate who has been tried six times. Speaker 5: The justice has agreed with Flowers' attorney that Mississippi prosecutor Doug Evans unlawfully and systematically blocked black potential jurors from... Madeleine Baran: This is 'In The Dark', an investigative podcast from APM Reports. I'm Madeleine Baran. Today's decision by the Supreme Court means that Curtis Flowers is no longer a guilty man. He's no longer convicted of a quadruple murder at Tardy Furniture. He's no longer sentenced to death, but Curtis is not a free man. He's still under indictment for those murders. So for now, he's still locked up while we wait to see whether District Attorney Doug Evans decides to try the case; for a seventh time. Sheri Lynn Johnson: It is a good day, hallelujah. Madeleine Baran: We called up Sheri Lynn Johnson. She's one of Curtis lawyers. She was the one who argued his case in front of the Supreme Court back in March. Sheri Lynn Johnson: This is a case of gross injustice and whether you're an imprisoned inmate or whether you're a regular citizen, this is an injustice that touches the heart and that the Supreme Court would step out and try to right that injustice, I think is encouraging to everyone. Madeleine Baran: Not everyone felt that way. Our reporter Raymond stopped by the House of Mary Katherine Briscoe. Rehman Tungekar: Hello, Mrs. Briscoe? Mary Katherine Briscoe: Hi. Madeleine Baran: She's the mother of Carmen Rigby, one of the people who was killed at Tardy Furniture. Mary Katherine Briscoe: We thought it was over, we thought it was the end. That was my daughter he killed at Tardy Furniture Company. I don't know why he don't just leave it alone. We just have to go through this so many times and I'm just not able to do it, I'm 90 years old. My son told me this morning, "Just don't think about it, you cannot attend another trial." because I'm living alone, my husband died after four trials, and we knew we both may never live long enough to get it all settled, but I hope so. Madeleine Baran: Raymond asked Mrs. Briscoe whether today's news has changed how she thinks of the prosecutor, Doug Evans. Mary Katherine Briscoe: No, he's done his part I think. He's done what he could, I know this is about warring him out too, but it's terrible. I just don't want to think about going through it again. Madeleine Baran: Mrs. Briscoe told Raymond that she feels sorry for the families on both sides of the case, the families of the victims and Curtis' family. But the way she looks at it, the person at fault here, is Curtis Flowers, for bringing up these issues in the first place. Mary Katherine Briscoe: I don't know why they just keep on and on with it. I don't understand that. Because we were trying to forget everything and settle down the rest of our lives, so I can't understand why he can't do the same. MUSIC: (Instrumental music) Madeleine Baran: Here's what today's Supreme Court opinion said. The majority opinion was written by the newest Justice on the court. One of the conservative justices, Justice Brett Kavanaugh, he was joined by the four liberal justices and two of his fellow conservatives, Justice Samuel Alito and Chief Justice John Roberts. The question the Supreme Court was looking at; was whether DA Doug Evans had violated the U.S constitution by striking black people from the jury because of their race, because they're black. It's called a Batson violation. In his opinion, Justice Kavanaugh said that's exactly what happened. Justice Kavanaugh focused on a black prospective juror named Carolyn Wright. DA Doug Evans had struck Carolyn Wright from the jury, but Evans said he didn't do it because she was black, he had other reasons. Justice Kavanaugh went through each of DA Doug Evans stated reasons for striking Carolyn Wright from the jury, and he knocked them down one by one. For example, Doug Evans had said he struck Carolyn Wright because she knew a lot of witnesses in the case. But Justice Kavanaugh pointed out that there were three white prospective jurors who also knew a lot of witnesses, and Doug Evans barely questioned them about their relationships and Kavanaugh said, "The evidence of discrimination didn't stop with Carolyn Wright." This one juror in Curtis's most recent trial, it extended through the entire Flowers case in trial after trial, Curtis has always been tried by an all-white or mostly white jury, and the reason for that, the Supreme Court found is because the state struck nearly every black prospective juror it could. The way Justice Kavanaugh saw it, this seemed deliberate. He wrote quote, "The State's relentless determined effort to rid the jury of black individuals strongly suggests that the state wanted to try Flowers before a jury with as few black jurors as possible and ideally before an all-white jury." Justice Kavanaugh wrote quote, "We cannot ignore that history. We cannot take that history out of the case." And so, Justice Kavanaugh and six other justices voted to reverse Curtis Flowers' conviction. The decision that the court handed down today was a narrow one. The court could have decided to do something really big in the Flowers decision, something that would've affected lots of cases, something that could have made it easier for other defendants to prove that there was racial discrimination and jury selection in their cases. The court could have even gotten rid of peremptory strikes altogether, although no one really expected them to do that. Instead, the way the court crafted the decision didn't do much according to the experts we spoke with to scare future prosecutors away from discriminating against African-Americans in jury selection. This is a law professor at Washington University named Dan Epps. Dan Epps: It's great for Mr. Flowers, provides relief for him. But yeah, I don't think that this is going to eliminate this practice. Madeleine Baran: Justice Clarence Thomas wrote the dissent, it was almost as long as the majority opinion; 42 pages. Justice Thomas didn't just attack the arguments of Curtis' lawyer. He attacked the court's previous ruling in the landmark case, Batson, that set up the rules for proving racial discrimination in jury selection. Justice Thomas called Batson quote, "A windfall to a convicted criminal." Justice Thomas also attacked his fellow justices for taking the case in the first place. "Perhaps the court took Curtis's case because it had received a fair amount of media attention." he said. And that in Justice Thomas' eyes is not a good thing. He wrote citing another court case quote, "The media often seeks to titillate rather than to educate and inform." Justice Thomas closed his dissent by saying quote, "If the court's opinion today has a redeeming quality, it is this. The state is perfectly free to convict Curtis Flowers again." MUSIC: (Instrumental music). Madeleine Baran: The man who gets to make that decision to try to convict Curtis Flowers again is the same person it's always been. District Attorney Doug Evans, our reporters, Rehman Tungekar and Curtis Gilbert caught up with Doug Evans around lunchtime today as he was walking into a Mexican restaurant in Kosciusko, one of the cities in his district. Curtis Gilbert: I was wondering if you just have a couple minutes to talk to us about the Supreme Court. Doug Evans: Not right now because I have not even read the opinion. Curtis Gilbert: But you're aware that it's been overturned? Doug Evans: I am, but I have not seen it. Madeleine Baran: Doug Evans said he hasn't changed his mind about whether Curtis Flowers committed the murders. Doug Evans: No question about his guilt, there never has been. Madeleine Baran: But he said he would wait until he read the Supreme Court's decision before deciding whether to try the case again, for a seventh time. The U.S Supreme Court's decision today marked the third time that a court had found Doug Evans violated the Constitution in the Flowers case by intentionally striking black people from the jury because of their race. Curtis Gilbert: The last thing I just had to ask you was that three different courts, including the U.S Supreme Court, have essentially found you violated the Constitution by excluding black jurors from the Flowers trials. I was wondering if they're going to change anything about the way you prosecute cases in the future, do you think as a result of that? Doug Evans: I've never struck anybody other than from comments that they made about, that I felt like they could not be fair and impartial, and that's all I can tell you on that. Curtis Gilbert: But why have courts repeatedly found otherwise? Doug Evans: Courts have also repeatedly found a lot of things. Courts are just like me and you, everybody's got opinions. MUSIC: (Instrumental music) Rehman Tungekar: Who's calling? Madeleine Baran: Back at the Flowers House in Winona, Archie Flowers' cell phone buzzed. Archie Flowers: Hello? Automated Voice: Hello, this is a prepaid call from... Madeleine Baran: It was Curtis calling from Parchman Prison. Archie Flowers: Hey, what you got going on? Curtis Flowers: [inaudible 00:12:55] Archie Flowers: Yeah. Well, it is probably all over town by now. So how are you feeling, man? You said your prayer? Curtis Flowers: [inaudible 00:13:08]. Archie Flowers: You said your prayer [inaudible 00:13:10]. Curtis Flowers: [inaudible 00:13:11]. Archie Flowers: Love you too, and I'll see you in the final paper. Curtis Flowers: All right [inaudible 00:13:21]. Archie Flowers: Okay. Automated Voice: Thank you for using... Rehman Tungekar: How did he sound? Speaker 3: He sounds good, he sounds good, really. You heard him talk, he sounded like he was happy, really. He sure was. I know he was happy because when I go visit him, he didn't have no joy like that, but he's happy. MUSIC: (Instrumental music) Madeleine Baran: So now Archie and Curtis are waiting to see what happens next. What happens next is one of the things we'll be talking about in our next episode, which we'll get to you as soon as we can. 'In the Dark', is reported and produced by me, Madeleine Baran, senior producer Samara Freemark, Producer Natalie Jablonski, associate producer Rehman Tungekar and reporters, Parker Yesko and Will Craft. In the Dark is edited by Catherine Winter. Web editors are Dave Mann and Andy Kruse, the editor-in-Chief of APM Reports is Chris Worthington.