Curtis Giovanni Flowers v. State of Mississippi

Summary

The Supreme Court of Mississippi affirmed Curtis Giovanni Flowers’s convictions and death sentences for four capital murders following his sixth trial. On remand from the United States Supreme Court for reconsideration under Foster v. Chatman, the court rejected Flowers’s Batson challenge to the prosecution’s peremptory strikes and reinstated its prior decision on the remaining issues. The opinion also addresses eyewitness identification, expert testimony, gunshot-residue evidence, jury selection, double jeopardy, jury instructions, and proportionality of the death sentence.

Holdings

1. The trial court did not err in admitting Collins's identifications because the photographic lineup was not impermissibly suggestive, and the circumstances did not create a substantial likelihood of misidentification.
2. The trial court did not abuse its discretion by excluding Robert Johnson's proposed expert testimony.
3. The trial court did not abuse its discretion by excluding Dr. Jeffrey Neuschatz's proposed eyewitness-identification testimony.
4. The trial court did not abuse its discretion by admitting evidence that a single particle of gunshot residue was found on Flowers's hand.
5. The evidence was sufficient for a rational trier of fact to find Flowers guilty beyond a reasonable doubt of four counts of capital murder committed during an armed robbery.
6. The prosecutor's closing argument did not warrant reversal under plain-error review.
7. The State's peremptory strikes did not establish a Batson violation, and the trial court's finding that the State's race-neutral reasons were credible was not clearly erroneous.

Questions Presented

1. Whether the eyewitness identifications by Porky Collins were impermissibly suggestive or constitutionally unreliable.
2. Whether the trial court improperly excluded expert testimony concerning police investigative techniques and eyewitness identification reliability.
3. Whether evidence of a single particle of gunshot residue should have been excluded under Mississippi Rule of Evidence 403.
4. Whether the evidence was legally sufficient to support four capital-murder convictions.
5. Whether prosecutorial statements during closing argument constituted reversible misconduct or plain error.
6. Whether the State exercised peremptory strikes in violation of Batson v. Kentucky and the Equal Protection Clause.
7. Whether the remaining challenges to the convictions, death sentences, jury instructions, double jeopardy, proportionality, and cumulative error warranted reversal.

Disposition

affirmed