Brian Rigby was just 18 years old when his mother, Carmen Rigby, and three other people were murdered at Tardy Furniture Store on July 16, 1996.
“When I was 36, I realized that I had lived half my life with my mom and half my life without my mom,” Rigby said. “I’m 41 now.”
Rigby said he sometimes feels like a victim himself because his mother was taken from him so senselessly, but then he remembers his life prior to the murders.
“I had a fantastic mom I got to spend 18 years with,” Rigby said. “Some people don’t. My mom instilled a lot in me I can pass on to my kids.”
Since that day 23 years ago, the Rigby family and the families of Bertha Tardy, Robert Golden, and Derrick “Bobo” Stewart have not yet found closure for the most devastating event of their lives.
For Curtis Flowers, who has been tried six times for the murders, the past two decades have been spent in a never-ending court battle of trials and appeals.
Flowers, now 49, was convicted and sentenced to death for the murders at Tardy Furniture. The 2010 trial was Flowers’ sixth trial in the case. The first three convictions were overturned by the Mississippi Supreme Court, trials four and five ended in hung juries.
Last Friday, a ruling from the United States Supreme Court overturned the 2010 conviction, stating that District Attorney Doug Evans unconstitutionally prevented African Americans from serving on the jury.
Seven of the justices voted to overturn Flowers’ conviction, and two, Clarence Thomas and Neil M. Gorsuch, dissented.
Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh, who wrote the majority opinion, stated that the 2010 trial broke no new legal ground. However, “four critical facts, taken together, require reversal.”
Kavanaugh said in the first six trials, the state used 41 of its 42 peremptory challenges to strike black jurors In the sixth trial, the state used peremptory challenges to strike five of six prospective black jurors, and also in the sixth trial, the state used “dramatically disparate questioning of black and white prospective jurors.”
Lastly, Kavanaugh stated that at least one juror was struck although her statements regarding the case were similar to those of white jurors not struck.
In his dissenting opinion, Thomas wrote: “Today’s decision distorts the record of this case, eviscerates our standard of review, and vacates four murder convictions because the state struck a juror who would have been stricken by any competent attorney.” He added, “If the court’s opinion today has a redeeming quality, it is this: The state is perfectly free to convict Curtis Flowers again.”
For the Flowers family, who have always maintained his innocence in the murders, Friday’s news was received with jubilation.
Flowers’ brother, Archie Flowers Jr., told the Clarion Ledger his first reaction when he heard about the court’s ruling was, "Thank God."
He said, "But I think they should have let him go period. There is no doubt in our minds he is innocent and God proved that today."
Sheri Lynn Johnson, counsel of record for Flowers, released a written statement following Friday’s ruling.
She wrote, “We are grateful that the Supreme Court has reversed Curtis Flowers’ conviction. Seven members of the court painstakingly analyzed the complex factual record and concluded that Doug Evans discriminated on the basis of race in a decision that reaffirms the importance of racial fairness in the administration of criminal justice, both for the defendant and for the community. This is a victory for everyone.
The quadruple homicide in this case was a terrible crime, but Curtis Flowers did not commit it. While today’s decision is extremely important, it is also important to recognize that the conviction the Supreme Court has now overturned was a product, not only of racial discrimination in jury selection, but also of a wide array of other forms of prosecutorial misconduct, including: the use of grossly unreliable forensic evidence; the presentation of admittedly false jailhouse informant testimony procured through secret promises of leniency; the suppression of powerful evidence undercutting the claims of key prosecution witnesses; and the brazen misrepresentation of critical facts in the prosecutor’s arguments to the jury,” she wrote.
For the families of the victims, news of the court’s ruling was “like a punch in the gut,” said Rigby.
“It’s very frustrating,” Rigby said. “I think the biggest battle for us is, how do you not let it affect your day? How do you not let it affect your sleep? You continue to have faith that justice will be served one day, and it will be final.”
Rigby said continuing the fight for justice is important, not just for the families of the victims, but for the citizens of Montgomery County.
“I know it has been 23 years,” Rigby said. “But I think everyone should be seeking justice. Four innocent people were killed. It is important that justice be served for four outstanding people that died.”
Rigby said because the Supreme Court focused on the numbers, they didn’t look at the particular reason each juror was struck.
“If you really look, [jurors] weren’t struck because of their race. They were struck because of their answers,” Rigby said. “For someone to say Doug Evans is a racist without looking at the facts is shallow and reckless.”
Rigby said he hopes Evans will “not throw his hands up,” and will pursue a seventh trial.
“If I thought for a minute there is an innocent man in prison, I would be the first to do something about it,” Rigby said. “It is important that the correct person is punished, and that is Curtis Flowers. That is what the evidence shows.”
Johnson said a seventh trial would be unprecedented.
“That Mr. Flowers has already endured six trials and more than two decades on death row is a travesty,” she wrote. “A seventh trial would be unprecedented, and completely unwarranted given both the flimsiness of the evidence against him and the long trail of misconduct that has kept him wrongfully incarcerated all these years. We hope that the State of Mississippi will finally disavow Doug Evans’ misconduct, decline to pursue yet another trial, and set Mr. Flowers free.”
Calls to Evans were not returned by press time Wednesday. However, he told The Grenada Star that Flowers would have to be tried a seventh time. He did not say if he would be heading up the prosecution.
