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In the Dark

Factual: Crime & Justice: True Crime

How can one man be tried six times for the same crime?

Curtis Flowers has been tried six times for the same crime. For more than 22 years, he’s maintained his innocence, winning appeal after appeal. But every time Flowers’ conviction has been reversed, the prosecutor tried the case again. Reporters from American Public Media spent two years investigating the Flowers case to find out what the evidence really shows, and why the same prosecutor has tried the case again and again.

In the Dark: The confession

Factual: Crime & Justice

17/08/2019 GMT

The confession

BBC World Service - In the Dark, The confession

A jailhouse informant says Curtis Flowers confessed to the murders at Tardy Furniture

The case against Curtis Flowers featured no DNA match and no witness to the four murders. But there was the word of one man who said Curtis Flowers confessed to him.

No witness has been more important to the prosecution's case against Curtis Flowers than Odell Hallmon. He testified in four trials that Flowers had confessed to him while the two men were in prison together. Hallmon’s testimony helped convince jurors to convict Curtis Flowers and sentence him to death. 
 
Hallmon has an astonishingly long criminal history that includes repeated charges for drug dealing, assault, and robbery. So how reliable is his testimony and did he receive anything in exchange for it? In this episode, we investigate the veracity of the prosecution's star witness.

Hosted and narrated by Madeleine Baran.

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