Curtis Flowers

Just before I was preparing to move into a new house this case had a dramatic ending and I knew that I wanted it to be one of the first that researched once things got settled. Surprisingly this case was not on my list of more than a thousand cases that I work through on a regular basis. Curtis Flowers faced six trials for a crime committed in 1996 so obviously this is not an “easy” case but I will try my best to keep the confusion to a minimum. There is a Podcast called “In the Dark” and the second season focuses on this case. I have not seen it as for whatever the reason that is not something that I have gotten into when it comes to my true crime obsession. However, it did win a journalism award and is said to be credited for bringing the case to the limelight as well as case doubt on much of the case against Flowers.

On the morning of July 16, 1996 a man named Sam Jones received a phone call from his former employer, Bertha Tardy a little after nine in the morning. Jones had worked for Tardy Furniture for fifty years but in 1996 he was retired. Bertha had called to ask him if he could come in and help train her new delivery guys. Jones would later state that he arrived at the store, located in downtown Winona Mississippi, a small town located some two hours from Memphis Tennessee, around ten that morning. He thought things seemed a little quiet and discovered four people inside laying on the floor. He did indicate that he had heard at least one gasp as if trying to catch their breath. Not knowing if a perpetrator was still in the building Jones left the store and went a few doors down in the strip mall and asked someone to call 9-1-1. The call was apparently confusing to the dispatch operator as it was not relayed to law enforcement that most of the victims in the store were likely dead and that an act of violence was apparent. My research indicated that the “gasp” that Jones heard had come from sixteen year old Derrick “BoBo” Stewart and that he was loaded into an ambulance but beyond that I did not discover at what point Derrick passed away.

Aside from Derrick Stewart, law enforcement would find the bodies of store owner, fifty-nine year old Bertha Tardy, forty-five year old Carmen Rigby and forty-two year old Robert Golden. They had all been shot in what was called “execution style” as they had gunshot wounds to the back of their heads. Initially there was a search made for Bertha's husband, Tom as he was known to spend many mornings in the store but he was later found alive and well.

It was said by law enforcement and prosecutors that Curtis Flowers was nearly immediately their number one, and only suspect in the case. Curtis had been a recent employee of the store. There seems to be a bit of a dispute as to just what happened to his employment there. Curtis claims that he simply stopped going to work. Friends and family have repeatedly stated over the years that while he was a good guy ambition and work ethic were not strong suits for him. However, investigators and prosecutors would say he was fired approximately two weeks before the murders when he failed to secure a truck and the product was destroyed. It is not clear how long he had worked at the company but it was on a part time basis and prosecutors say that he owed Bertha Tardy thirty dollars from a cash advance he had received. Investigators claim that this money was removed from his last paycheck and would argue that Curtis was holding a grudge.

There were a few reports that indicated that Curtis was questioned the day of the murders about his possible involvement. It was said that his hands tested positive for gunshot residue and that more than two hundred dollars were found in the headboard of his home. There were two different reports about money being missing from the store. One indicated that the amount had been $300 while the other said $400. I was never able to indicate when this search took place. I also never found any other reference or comment from Curtis about the money that was found. However, I did see a report that Curtis claimed that the day before the GSR test he had handled fireworks. But, again, I found nothing that stated when this search of his body and home took place. Nor did I find a specific date in which Curtis would be arrested. Everything simply said “several months later.”

Curtis' first of six trials would take place in October of 1997. The prosecutor on the case was Doug Evans. Evans would be the prosecutor for all six of Curtis' trials. Evans would also be the leading contributor according to the courts as the reason the state was put in the position to try Curtis six times in the first place, and as we go through each trial you will see and understand why this came to be. The first four trials were presided over by the same judge.

Curtis' first trial was only for the murder of Bertha Tardy. This generally happens for one of two reasons. The first is that prosecutors likely felt they had the most evidence against Curtis in the case against Tardy. It also leaves open the possibility to try him for the other murders, together or separately, if he were to successfully appeal a conviction. Now there is a third reason a prosecutor could do this and to be fair it sounds like Evans' plan was to try him four times anyway. The last reason could have been to obtain four death sentences against him, all in separate cases despite it being one crime. The jury of Curtis' first trial was comprised of 12 white jurors. Despite the fact that Curtis is a black man, and the Constitution states that a jury should be comprised of his peers this is not necessarily an uncommon make up. With that being said, just the fact that there were not any black people on the jury alone did not mean that the prosecutor had done anything wrong.

The prosecutors would rely on the fact that there had been bloody shoe prints at the scene of a size 10 ½ shoe. The shoe had been identified as a Filas Grant Hill style. They would also claim that while they had not found a weapon that bullets left at the scene were the same caliber as a gun that had been stolen from Curtis' uncle on the same day as the murder. In addition to this the prosecutors presented witnesses who claimed to have seen Curtis outside the furniture store allegedly wearing the type of shoes described on the morning of the murders. There were also two men who had been cellmates with Curtis during his time in jail who would testify that he admitted stealing money and murdering the victims.

Now, to be fair, in all of my research I never saw anything that discussed any kind of fingerprints at the scene. Considering he had worked there in the last few weeks if there had been fingerprints found it would not have necessarily meant he was guilty... it would be dependent on where those prints were found. Curtis maintained his innocence throughout but the jury found him guilty of the murder and robbery against Bertha Tardy and he was sentenced to death.

While Curtis' first case was under appeal Evans tried him again in March of 1999 for the murder of sixteen year old Derrick Stewart. The defense had won a change of venue considering that the case had garnered a huge amount of publicity in Montgomery County. Evans and Curtis were not the only familiar faces. The same judge from the first trial presided over this one. This time the jury consisted of eleven white people and one black person. Once again the jury found Curtis guilty and sentenced him to death.

In 2000 the Mississippi State Supreme Court overturned Curtis' first conviction. The court said that while Curtis was being tried solely for the murder of Bertha Tardy and the charge of robbery, which gave Evans the enhancement needed to seek the death penalty, the prosecution had presented evidence of all four murders. The court officially stated that Evans had gone “beyond that necessary to prove the murder of Tardy alone.” They also stated that the prosecutor had also asked questioned “not in good faith and without basis in fact.” Officially the ruling came down as misconduct by the prosecutor. In 2003 the Mississippi State Supreme Court overturned Curtis' second conviction for the exact same reasons as they had done for the first. It seems that once again Evans once again had presented evidence of all four murders that went beyond as needed to prove the murder of Derrick Stewart.

In February 2004 Evans tried Curtis again. This time, likely in an attempt to make sure he could present all he wanted, Curtis was tried for all four counts of murder. The jury was made up of eleven whites and one black. As in the two previous trials Curtis was found guilty and given the death penalty. This time, in 2007, the Mississippi State Supreme Court overturned the conviction based on the fact that it appeared that Evans had used his jury challenges in racially motivated ways. The county was said to have been made up of 45% of African American's and yet in three trial, thirty-six jury members, only two had been black. That alone would not have been enough to overturn the conviction but when it was compared to the fact that they could prove that Evans struck blacks from the jury on grounds that he did not strike whites the court proclaimed that it was the strongest case of racial discrimination they had ever seen. Do not forget that this case was taking place in Mississippi, so personally I find it amazing that the court made this statement and I believe it said a lot.

In November of 2007 Curtis went on trial for a fourth time. Once again we had the same judge and same prosecutor. This time was different in the aspect that according to Evans he did not seek the death penalty because the victims families asked him not to based on the fact that that there were less appeal options later upon a conviction. The jury was made up of seven whites and five blacks. Evans once again used all of his jury strikes against black jurors but in the end it did not matter. The jury hung 7-5 along race lines.

Curtis' fifth trial was in September 2008. This time a new judge was presiding over the case, Joseph Loper. It is unclear if Evans sought the death penalty in this trial but again it did not matter as it ended in a hung jury, but that was not the only “excitement” from this trial. The jury this time consisted of nine whites and three blacks. On the first day of the trial an alternate juror, the only black woman, was arrested for perjury for allegedly lying in saying she did not know Curtis Flowers. I did not find any more information on this issue however so I cannot say how she allegedly knew him or if it was even personal or her statement was based on not knowing him through the media. I also cannot say what the outcome of her case may have been. The jury ended up being hung with an 11-1 count. The lone hold out was a man black man named James Bibbs. Immediately at the end of the trial Judge Loper accused Bibbs of perjury during selection. Again, I cannot say what this accusation was based upon but at least I can tell you more than I was able to tell you about the other juror. It was said that Loper recommended that Evans prosecute Bibbs on the charges. However, eight months later Evans recused himself from Bibbs case and at some point so did Loper. The new prosecutor dropped the charges saying there was no evidence, or at least not enough to prosecute apparently.

In July 2010 Curtis' sixth trial took place. Keep in mind that technically for the last three years he had no conviction on record. The courts had overturned his third conviction in 2007 and the next two juries were hung. Once again Evans was the prosecutor and Judge Loper presided over the case. The jury consisted of eleven whites and one black. For the fourth time he was found guilty and sentenced to death. The Mississippi State Supreme Court upheld the conviction in 2014 and again in 2017 after the United States Supreme Court forced them to look at the case again. Then in June of 2019 once again the United States Supreme Court had the case and they overturned the conviction once again. Defense attorney's had once again pointed out that black jurors were struck from the pool by Evans based on their race. They also brought up the case Batson V Kentucky from 1986. The Batson case is where prosecutors were forbidden from striking someone based on their race and had created a system to help judges evaluate claims of discrimination. The US Supreme Court came to their ruling with a vote of 7-2 with the only African American Supreme Court Justice dissenting. However, Justice Kavanaugh said at least one black juror was in a similar situation as white juror and was improperly excused. For me it seems a bit hard to argue that Evans did not use his strikes racially when in all six trial they were used against black people. Now, of course the Supreme Court only looked at the sixth trial for this decision.

By November of 2019 there had been no word from Evans as to whether he planned to re-try the case for a seventh time. Many felt that Evans needed to recuse himself and hand the case to the Attorney General but Evans was keeping mum. Curtis Flowers had been in jail for over twenty years and once again he was considered to be an innocent man by the rule of law because there was not a valid conviction against him. Around that time the NAACP filed a class action lawsuit against Evans, accusing him of purposely striking potential black jurors over whites at a rate of 4.4 times more frequently. Eventually the case was dismissed on only what I could see as described as “procedural grounds” which could mean a variety of things.

In December of 2019 Judge Loper scheduled a hearing in the case. There had still been no word from Evans' office as to whether he planned to re-try Curtis, hand the case over, or even possibly drop the charges. But it seems even Loper had had enough of Evans. Not only did he set an amount for bail for Curtis Flowers, he chastised the fact that not only had the state failed to announce their plans but Evans had not even showed at the hearing. An anonymous donor posted Curtis' bail.

In January of 2020 Doug Evans decided to hand the case over to the Attorney General. I found this quite interesting for a few reasons. In 2019, when the case was overturned by the Supreme Court the Attorney General of Mississippi had spoken out about the case. He felt it was a strong case and when asked if he would take over to prosecute the case he explained that he could not do so without being asked to do so by Evans but he seemed enthusiastic about it and expressed he believed it was a strong case against Curtis Flowers. In late 2019 both Doug Evans and the Attorney General were up for re-election. Evans ran unopposed but the Attorney General lost his seat and was replaced. Then, Evans waited until January to turn the case over. In September of 2020 the new Attorney General announced that she was dropping the charges against Curtis. Officially it was “dropped with prejudice” meaning that the State of Mississippi could never try Curtis Flowers for the murders at Tardy Furniture ever again.

Several members of the victims families have spoken out that they were disappointed and upset at the decision to drop charges against Curtis as they wholeheartedly believe that he is guilty of murdering their loved ones. This is not unusual. Many families of victims get most of their information from the prosecutors in cases who will often over sell the evidence and the case. To add to this families want justice for their loved ones and they had been convinced by the prosecutors and investigators that the evidence against Curtis Flowers was solid and good. To fair to them, all four cases that actually ended in a verdict, were convictions and none of the reasons the court overturned those convictions directly involved the evidence in the case. Then again when an appeal is filed on a particular issue only that issue is addressed. I have also seen cases where multiple issues have been brought up by the defense and when the courts see one of the issues as being one in which is enough to overturn a verdict they simply do not even address the other issues. My point here is that since I did not see the appeal papers I cannot say that issues involving the evidence or witnesses were not brought up. It is possible that those things were brought up but in each case the courts saw the issue of racial bias as enough to overturn the verdict and never looked at or discussed the other issues.

That being said I'm going to touch on some of that evidence now. As I mentioned at the beginning there is a PodCast called In the Dark and season two covers this case. It has been said prosecutors relied on the bloody shoe prints left at the scene “as well as testimony that was later disputed by the reporting by the Podcast.” I never found anything that stated that it was proven with facts that Curtis owned a pair of the Fila Grant Hill shoes that allegedly made the prints. There was apparently testimony that witnesses claimed that he was wearing them when they saw him on the morning of the murders but Curtis has maintained that he was wearing Nike' brand shoes. I cannot say that even Curtis himself claimed or denied even owning those types of shoes and I never found anything that indicated the shoes were found. It appears that the prosecution relied on alleged eye witness testimony that he was wearing those particular shoes and the prints inside the crime scene are alleged to be the same size in which he wore. This is where I will play a little devil's advocate. First I am unsure that I would believe anyone who had been on the street and claimed to see someone outside a building could accurately describe their clothing and shoes, both of which were allegedly done. I know that I do not look at people's shoes, especially people I do not know. Curtis has also disputed eye witness testimony as to what he wore that day.

There were three witnesses who over the years spent time in jail with Curtis who would claim that he confessed to the robbery and murders. First I want to point out that Curtis has always denied not only that he committed the murders, but that he ever confessed to these people. One of men apparently died without ever making another statement about the alleged confession. One witness claimed he confessed at another prison after the first trial and he has since recanted although I have little to no information on that. A third man was named Odell Hallman. He also has since recanted his confession saying “Everything was make-believe.” It was proven that Hallman had cases dropped and was given lighter sentences in others after cooperating with investigators. It also appears that some of the eye witnesses who claimed to have seen Curtis outside the store on the morning of the murders may have recanted also.

Then, as I stated earlier I have questions about when the GSR test was done on Curtis' hands and the cash that was allegedly found. First, I am unsure how they could even know for certain that money found had come from the store and robbery. Regardless of what amount the media reported was stolen, since there were two different amounts that I found, the full amount was not found, nor did I find any reports of anything being bought or paid for in a short period of time after the murders. But again, I could not find when this search even took place. It was reported that at the time of the murder he lived with his girlfriend and a few months later the two moved to Plano Texas to live with his sister. But, let's be clear that it was not as if he “ran off” or hid from official. First, he obviously went and lived with a family member that could have easily been traced. Secondly, it was said that he often made the seven hour drive back to Mississippi to visit his parents so he was not obviously attempting to hide or conceal his whereabouts. It still leaves the question as to when he was arrested and on what evidence.

Next comes the issue of a weapon. As I stated earlier it was said that while a weapon was never found authorities claimed that Curtis' uncle had a gun stolen on the morning of the murders that matched the caliber of bullets found at the scene. However, the PodCast claimed that there was a “disappearance of a gun, potentially the murder weapon, after it was turned over to the police.” Once again I have not seen the PodCast but it is an interesting thing to look into and consider. However, that aside, and while I would definitely like to know more about the alleged missing weapon and any access Curtis may have had to it. I did not write it in my notes but as I recall it was a fairly common caliber weapon that honestly could have come from anyone.

While the investigators and prosecutors claim that Curtis was their number one and only suspect the PodCast was said to have presented some legitimate other suspects. The furniture store had been opened during the World War II era. It was said that it was Derrick Stewart's first job and one report stated it was Robert Golden's first day on the job. Golden allegedly had another full-time job and was working at Tardy's part-time, just as Curtis had. All of this indicates to me that while Bertha Tardy, the owner had started out as an employee several decades prior and Carmen Rigby had been there twenty years, that at a lower level there was a high turnover, at least near that time since Sam Jones had retired. I never found anything that talked about what kind of boss Bertha Tardy was and to be fair, from the things I found she seemed to be decent (she worked for several charities and obviously loaned employees money) but that did not give a complete picture of her as a business owner nor did it give an accurate description of the type of people that she hired. According to reports, the PodCast examined several people that could have been considered suspects that were apparently never looked into by law enforcement as they have always said that Curtis was their first and only suspect.

Obviously there are those, such as the victims families, who will argue that Curtis Flowers was in deed guilty of the murders and I must be fair in saying they could be absolutely correct in those thoughts. But, for me it has always been about the law and I have at least two issues in this case. First of course is the issue with Doug Evans and his apparent blatant disregard to the law. Despite what people think judges do not like to second guess juries or other judges. While it is said that we are presumed innocent until proven guilty, it is also said that juries get it right. In Curtis Flowers' case however the first two trials were overturned, not because of his overly apparent racial bias, and not necessarily based on the evidence, but because Evans presented evidence that was not allowed in the proceedings as well as asked questions apparently based on rumor or suspicion and not based on the facts of the case. But, let's be real here, how many facts did they really have? While we could argue that the juries in at least the first two trials got it right we are also being told by the State Supreme Court that prosecutor indicated things to the jury through his questioning that were not true, so did they get it right? How do any of us know that the jury had not relied heavily on some of the things that the court later all but stated were false? By the third trial Evans knew he would likely screw it up again if he did not try Curtis for all four murders together, but he also apparently thought no one would notice his racial bias. It seems pretty clear that he had used the same tactics in the other two trials but his other mistakes had been caught first.

The reality of it all is that if Doug Evans had followed the law when it came to proceedings this case would have been over a long time ago. Whether that case would have been proven by the prosecution or not is unclear. Over the course of nearly 25 years witnesses have not just recanted their testimony but some have also died leaving any case harder to prove.

I doubt that anyone will be held accountable for the four murders at the furniture store. Curtis Flowers can never be tried again. In cases such as these even if a reliable suspect does come to light it is unlikely that they would be prosecuted, let alone convicted. The prosecutors office put all of their eggs with Curtis Flowers in 1996 and they staunchly defended that notion for all these years. It is unlikely that they will ever admit they were wrong. Even if they did admit they were wrong and found another suspect, it would be nearly impossible to convict the person. I would gander to guess there was never DNA in this case or they would have announced it and used it years ago. As is the case of re-trying Flowers, witnesses have died; others have lied. Any defense attorney worth his or her salt could create reasonable doubt faster than any of us can say reasonable doubt. The victims will never receive justice in the legal system and no one will be punished. Even if we argue that Curtis Flowers is in fact guilty then he spent about twenty-three years in prison for executing four people and that does not sound like enough. If we argue that Curtis was an innocent man railroaded by a racist prosecutor and investigators with tunnel vision there is nothing that can be done to give him those years back and everyone loses.

Edit:  On October 8, 2020 I began watching a show called Wrong Man.  It is six episodes long.  The first two episodes were about one case and the next two (which I'm still going through), were about this case.  It is a show much like Cold Case Files where new investigators and people look into and dig into the case.  Watching this I have found some answers I was looking for.  

In my initial research it was said that the defense had come up with some credible other suspects but they were not named.  I had also discovered that Curtis' uncle had reported a .380 pistol missing that morning but did not find full details on this, nor do I recall seeing the uncle's name.  Another area of interest was the issue that I heard had been brought up on the PodCast about the police having a gun at some point but no one knew what had happened to it, nor until this show did I know anything more than that.  

Lets go through these things in order.  First, at least one of the credible suspects just so happens to be Curtis' uncle, Doyle Simpson.  Simpson was the brother of Curtis' mother Ruth.  In everything I have seen he is the most credible but despite the prosecutor and investigators claiming Curtis was the only suspect ever, the show I am watching proved something different.  There was apparently a group of young men that included two men named Marcus Presley and LaSamuel Gamble, who committed several murders in Alabama around the time of the Tardy murders.  The defense was not made aware of this group until many years later.  Now, some may wonder why murders in Alabama would be interesting but that is only the start of the questions.  The reason they are interesting is because not only were the crimes they committed similar in the fact that the crimes were committed at businesses during the day but in the cases of the murders they were execution style like the Tardy murders.  There is also the issue that not only was a .380 pistol used but one that apparently jammed, which was believed to have happened in the Tardy murders.  Then there is the issue that it was determined that LaSamuel Gamble did own Fila Grant Hill shoes.  I should be fair though in saying that I did not hear that it was the same size shoe as believed to be worn by the perpetrator for certain.  However, when the murders in Alabama were going on and the perpetrators were caught an investigator from Winona contacted authorities there and asked for mug shots.  One of those mug shots ended up in a photo lineup shown to at least one witness.  This shows that there were other suspects despite what authorities stated.

Now, let's go back to Doyle Simpson.  He claimed to have been at work that day but where he worked he only worked a few hours even though he spent a lot of time at the plant where I believe it said he was a janitor on his off hours and it seems unclear that any employment records or timecards were found.  One witness at the plant stated she saw Curtis leaning on Doyle's car that day.  Her testimony has been in question but, in addition to that no one saw Curtis get into Doyle's car, and the time in question was long before the murders occurred.  Doyle, unlike Curtis, did have a violent background that had involved drugs and murder in another state.  One of Doyle's other sisters has stated that she worked at a nursing home apparently near the Tardy store and that on the morning of the murders she saw Doyle drive by twice within a fifteen minute period around the time of the murder going first in the direction of the store and then later away.  Then there is the gun that he reported to be missing.  My initial research just simply stated he had reported it missing that morning.  What it had left out was the fact that the 9-1-1 call reporting the incident at Tardy's came in at 10:20 and Doyle's call to report his gun missing came in at 10:30.  It was also said that Doyle had previously worked at Tardy's also at some point.  This latter point is important because it is believed that the perpetrator, or perpetrators knew the layout of the store.  It is believed that they left by the back door. 

While I am on the subject of suspects, there is another "unknown" suspect that was talked about in the show I just finished watching.  Apparently about a week before the murders the store had been broken into.  Someone had accessed the store through the roof at some point.  While it was said that they could not determine if anything was missing it was also reported that apparently a key was stolen that worked on a side door of the store as it seems that is how the perpetrator had left the store.  This indicated once again it was someone familiar with things in the store, which obviously would not have excluded Curtis, but it appears that the investigation was not taken seriously to the point that no fingerprints were ever taken and it even seems that the report itself was rather minor.

I would be remiss if I did not mention one more "suspect" or theory that seems to be rather rampant in Winona.  Without reading over things I am unsure if I mentioned in my initial blog that after the murders were reported there was a search for Tom Tardy.  It was initially believed that he was likely in the store because he was at the store every day.  It was said that he was wheelchair bound and nearly blind but that Bertha Tardy brought him to the store with her every morning and it was Tom who opened things up.  On that particular morning Tom Tardy had not gone to the store and many found that odd.  There were thoughts that maybe he had been a mastermind behind things or even a family member.  If you listen to investigators they basically did not even entertain this theory.  Now, let me be clear in saying that I am unsure I buy this theory but I do believe it should have been investigated.  It seems EVERYONE in town was suspicious that Tom Tardy was not at the store that morning and they all claim he was there every single day.  That being said it is unclear if he had the ability to be the mastermind behind anything. However his life story would leave people to question if someone else could not have been involved.  Tom Tardy was married to his first wife for nearly sixty years.  At the time of his death in 2000 he had three children and a brother surviving him.  Bertha had worked for him for many years and was eighteen years his junior.  He sold Bertha the business and then a few years later married her.  We have seen this before.  Family members get upset and resent choices their parents or relatives make that could cost them an inheritance.  I am not saying for a fact that this happened in this case but it appears that it was never even considered or looked at.  In the television show I watched Tom's son was interviewed off camera and the investigator on the show stated that Tom's son was adamant that Curtis was guilty and had revealed something no one had heard before.  Tom's son claimed that family members had said they were scared of Curtis.  This was something that not only no one had heard before but that it appears no one had ever said of Curtis.

Now, lets talk about the supposed missing gun.  The PodCast apparently touches on this and I have no idea what it reveals since I have not seen it.  We all know that documentaries, the media, as well as people in general can be bias in their reporting and I suspect that was done at least a bit here.  My research indicated that the PodCast discovered a gun had been given to the police but that the police mysteriously lost it or something like that.  The investigators in the show that I watched discussed this.  They found a report that a man stated three or four years after the murders he had found a .380 gun under the house in which he lived in that was located about a mile from the murders.  Investigators from the show spoke to him.  He claims that his dog found the gun and that he had called the police and turned it over to them.  They then talked to the officer who allegedly was given the gun.  The officer claims that this never happened.  The investigators from the show tended to believe the officer and not the man who alleged he found the gun and turned it in and had some compelling reasons to do so.  The gun used in the murders was never found.  The cases against Curtis had either already been overturned or were in the appeals process likely when this was allegedly found.  The investigators pointed out that if a gun had been found and turned over to the police as was alleged it is unlikely that it would not have been big news in this small town and there would have been word that the suspected weapon had been found and was being tested and sent to a lab. This never happened.  I tend to believe these investigators were probably right.  They did not have a lot on Curtis and this gun would have been a great lead if they could prove it was the murder weapon.  

The show that I watched repeatedly spoke of the fact of how the case against Curtis was purely circumstantial.  This bothers me and I have discussed this in other blogs.  MOST cases are purely circumstantial when they are placed in front of a jury.  In the age of DNA people expect  and often receive more in cases, and in reality they should, but not all cases can provide that.  That being said I do believe the circumstantial evidence they had against Curtis was not reliable enough to obtain a conviction.  I never felt that they had enough to successfully connect the dots.  

Of course in the end, while it took decades to do it has finally all come to an end.