Recently I have started listening to a Podcast called In the Dark. This is season two that focuses on the Tardy Furnitire store murders in Mississippi in the 90’s and the 6 count them 6 capital murder trials that followed. DA Doug Evans has had to try Flowers 6 times because 5 times the verdicts were either thrown out due to prosecutorial misconduct or they had a hung jury. I don’t know if this Flowers guy is guilty or not but the actions of the DA, whether purposeful or simply out of negligence are enraging.

The case itself is solely based on circumstantial evidence and 3 different jailhouse snitches. Snitches that all got get out of free jail cards for snitching. 2 have recanted after the $30k reward money the DA promised them never materialized. One even went as far as to say that the entire confession was made up and fed to him by the DA. The last snitch is the one that really pisses me off. Odell “Cookie” Hallmon had 4 cases pending before he snitched (drug dealing found with 10 crack viles, drug possession found with 50 crack viles, gun possession, and robbery.) all of these charges disappeared. In total he testified 4 times for the DA and in between those trials he got caught with 135 grams of cocaine, tried to kill a police officer by running him over, shot up a house with occupants inside, etc.... his charges would keep mysteriously disappearing as new trials against Flowers Loomed. Eventually while out on bond (for over 2 years) for the attempted running over of the police deputy, he shot and killed his girlfriend, her mother, tried to shoot and kill his young son (only grazed him), drove over to the another guys house and shot him in the head while he slept, drove over to another guys house and shot but didn’t kill him....then drove over to the court house where his Buddy the DA works and turned himself in. He was already a multi-time felon and was eligible for life in prison for any of his previous felonies through the habitual offender law. The DA refused to push for habitual offender mandatory sentencing every time up until the shooting spree as he always had an appeal looming in the Flowers case and you can’t piss off your star witness. After the triple murder he had no choice. Even now as there’s another appeal in the works he cut a deal with Hallmon for life in prison instead of the death penalty.

Whether this is intended misconduct or just out right negligence Doug Evans has basically given this guy a pass at every turn and people are dead because of it. If you have 45 min and just want to listen to this particular episode it will make your blood boil. I know you can’t take a podcast as gospel but by all the reading I have done on this case they have it all right.

https://www.apmreports.org/sto.../22/in-the-dark-s2e5