WINONA, Miss. — For more than two decades, Curtis Flowers has returned over and over again to a court in Mississippi to face prosecution for the brutal killings of four people in a small-town furniture store where he once worked.

In the first three trials, Mr. Flowers, a black man, was found guilty by nearly all-white juries. Each of those convictions was overturned by the State Supreme Court. In the fourth and fifth trials, juries failed to reach verdicts.

And in the sixth and most recent trial, Mr. Flowers was found guilty and sentenced to death. This time, his appeals ascended to the United States Supreme Court, and again the conviction was tossed.

On Monday, after chastising prosecutors for not resolving the case that Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. wrote was “likely one of a kind,” a judge granted Mr. Flowers bail, offering him the gift of freedom for the first time in 23 years.