Hi, and the Dark listeners. We're back with an all-new set of episodes about the case of Curtis Flowers.

If you haven't listened to the second season of In The Dark yet, stop, go back, and listen to it first.

One more thing. This episode contains a word that's offensive.

In the spring of 2010, a letter arrived at Diane Copper's house in Winona, Mississippi.

I opened the letter to wow.

It was a jury summons. A letter asking Diane to appear at the courthouse in Winona a few weeks later.

Diane said she knew right then what trial it had to be. The state of Mississippi versus Curtis Flowers.

The sixth one. Curtis Flowers, a big trial.

Hundreds of people in Montgomery County got letters like this one.

Flancy Jones got a letter, and when it came time to go to court, she got all dressed up.

I wore my little rod of jeans, and I wore these little shoes that the heel was out.

But got dressed in my car.

Flancy drove down to the courthouse.

It was so many of us. We were just like, glad. It was so many that you couldn't park outside.

You couldn't walk in that entryway. It was just a million people there.

There were 600 prospective jurors.

And that group of 600 had to be trimmed down to just 12. 12 plus three alternates.

To do that, Flancy, Diane and the others would have to go through jury selection.

Through the process that's supposed to help choose a jury of 12 people who can be fair and impartial.

And in the Curtis Flowers case, that process took five days, five days of being questioned.

First, by the judge, Joey Loper. A lot of prospective jurors were sent home after that.

And then the remaining prospective jurors were questioned by the lawyers.

...