WINONA – Nearly a week after they were first summoned to court on June 4, a jury of six women and six men were seated Thursday afternoon in the sixth murder trial of Curtis Giovanni Flowers.
Flowers is charged with the murders of Bertha Tardy, Carmen Rigby, Derrick Stewart and Robert Golden at Tardy Furniture Store in Winona on July 16, 1996. All four victims were shot in the head.
Flowers has been tried five times for the murders, with three convictions and two hung juries. His convictions were overturned.
On Tuesday, Judge Joseph H. Loper told potential jurors that the case was “not about black or white, guilt or innocence, but it was about right and wrong.” But Flowers’ defense attorneys tried to make it an issue of race when selecting the final jurors on Thursday.
Before the final jury panel, of 11 whites, and one black, was chosen about 3:30 p.m. Thursday afternoon, defense attorney Allison Steiner made several motions including a motion to declare a mistrial and start the jury selection process all over at another time.
Judge Loper denied her request.
Steiner’s request came after the court decided to release the remaining jurors that had not been questioned individually on the witness stand through voir dire, since 45 potential jurors had already been questioned and were acceptable for the final panel.
Eleven more jurors were excused for cause by 8 p.m. Wednesday night and about a dozen were left to voir dire Thursday morning.
Steiner argued that by releasing those remaining jurors, the potential number of blacks on the final jury had been reduced. Steiner also said that there had been a “persistent pattern” of asking questions during voir dire that were specifically race related.
“Name one,” Judge Loper curtly asked Steiner.
Steiner said that during voir dire no white jurors had been asked what neighborhoods they lived in, but only black jurors had.
Loper said the entire panel was asked if they lived on Silver Street, McNutt, Harper or Cade Streets at the time of the murders, which is also the area where Flowers was living. Several black jurors responded affirmatively and they were further questioned whether or not they knew Flowers or his then girlfriend, Connie Moore.
Steiner also said only black jurors had been singled out and questioned about being sued by Tardy Furniture, and Judge Loper reminded her that the entire jury panel was asked who had credit accounts with Tardy Furniture and many from both races responded, and when asked how many had been sued for those accounts by Tardy Furniture only black jurors responded.
Loper said he “totally” rejected Steiner’s statement that the questions were race based.
Steiner also argued that many of the jurors that had been excused for cause earlier in the week were also black, and Loper said that was because the majority of those jurors said they were either related to or knew Flowers and his family and they could not be fair and sit in judgment of him.
“The law says Mr. Flowers has the right to be tried in his county,” Loper told Steiner. “But you can’t come back and complain because a lot of people know him.”
Steiner then requested that all the remaining jurors be questioned individually during voir dire and for that list be “randomly shuffled” for the final jury selection.
Judge Loper also denied that request.
Testimony began on Friday and will continue Saturday morning.
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