A compulsively readable insider’s account of the most prosecuted case in American law—and what it tells us about race bias in jury selection. Curtis Flowers, a Black man from Mississippi, stood trial six times over more than two decades for a crime he did not commit—repeatedly facing nearly all-white juries after the prosecutor repeatedly struck Black jurors. From a member of Flowers’s defense team, The Color of Conviction is a deeply reported, riveting examination of the case that gripped the nation and exposed the fatal flaw in how we choose our juries. Tucker Carrington draws on historical evidence and firsthand experience to reveal how prosecutors continue to shape juries along racial lines, despite the Supreme Court’s hollow safeguards and faith in fair play. Incisive and urgent, this book moves beyond tracing Flowers’s fight for justice. It challenges us to reckon with the central role of race in our society, and forces us to confront a troubling question: What does a fair trial really mean when race and justice are inextricably bound?
