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Thread: Norman Mearle Grim, Jr. - Florida Death Row

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    Norman Mearle Grim, Jr. - Florida Death Row




    Summary of Offense:

    On July 27, 1998, at approximately 5:00 a.m., a Santa Rosa County Sheriff’s Deputy responded to a disturbance call at the house of Cynthia Campbell. Campbell reported a disturbance behind her home, and when the deputy investigated, he found a broken window and a chrome lug nut in the bushes below the window. Campbell’s neighbor, Norman Grim, Jr., invited her over for coffee before Deputy Lynch left. Two workers from Campbell’s law office went to her house later that morning and found Campbell’s car in the driveway, but no sign of Campbell in the house. The Sheriff’s Office was called and deputies responded to the scene. When deputies questioned Grim about Campbell’s disappearance, they noticed that Grim’s shoulder and cut-off blue jean shorts had reddish-brown stains on them. Grim explained that the stains were primer paint from his car. In the afternoon of July 27, 1998, two fishermen hooked a human body, later determined to be Campbell, wrapped in a sheet, shower curtain, and masking tape. Campbell’s body had deep abrasions and contusions around her shoulders, eyes, forehead, chin, and lips, which were consistent with the blunt force trauma of a hammer. Campbell’s body also had eleven stab wounds to the chest, which, in conjunction with the blunt force trauma, caused her death.

    Earlier that afternoon, a former coworker of Grim’s spotted him in his parked car on the Pensacola Bay Bridge, with the car doors and trunk open. Surveillance camera videotape showed Grim entering a convenience store at the foot of the bridge shortly after he was seen parked on the bridge. Additional forensic evidence was found in Grim’s house: two damp, bloody mops in the kitchen; small areas of blood on the kitchen floor and cabinets; two bloody fingerprints on a box of trash bags; a striped pillow case with blood on it in the kitchen trash; blood spots in the dining room; a pair of blue-jean shorts with blood stains in the living room; bloody athletic shoes; and rope consistent with the rope used on Campbell’s body. On Grim’s back porch, further forensic evidence was found: a green carpet, which matched the carpet used to wrap Campbell’s body; a pair of prescription glasses (with Campbell’s prescription); and a cooler that contained more forensic evidence. In the cooler a steak knife, a piece of cloth with blood stains, a pair of men’s underwear, a tampon with blood stains, masking tape, and a blood-stained hammer were recovered. All forensic evidence contained Campbell’s unique genetic markers.

    Grm was sentenced to death in Santa Rosa County on December 21, 2000.

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    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    Factors Contributing to the Delay in Imposition of Sentence:

    The case progression appears to be within acceptable time parameters.

    Case Information:


    Grim filed a Direct Appeal with the Florida Supreme Court on 02/02/01, citing the following trial court errors: improper presentation of mitigating evidence and testimony and failure to allow the introduction of hearsay statements made by the victim prior to the murder. On 10/03/02, the FSC affirmed the convictions and sentences, and on 03/20/03 issued a revised opinion, again affirming the convictions and sentences.

    Grim filed a Petition for Writ of Certiorari with the U.S. Supreme Court on 06/12/03 that was denied on 10/06/03.

    Grim filed a 3.851 Motion with the Circuit Court on 10/05/04. On 04/14/05 & 09/01/05, an Evidentiary Hearing was held. On 12/20/05, the Circuit Court denied the motion.

    Grim filed a 3.851 Motion Appeal with the Florida Supreme Court on 01/24/06 that was denied on 10/04/07.

    Grim filed a Petition for Writ of Habeas Corpus with the Florida Supreme Court on 08/08/06 which was denied on 10/04/07.

    Grim filed a Petition for Writ of Habeas Corpus with the United States District Court on 01/02/08 which was denied on 03/31/11

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    Grim, Jr. v. Secretary, FL DOC

    Opinion Date: January 22, 2013

    Court: Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals

    Petitioner, a Florida prison inmate awaiting execution, petitioned for a writ of habeas corpus. After the district court denied the petition, it issued a certificate of appealability with respect to certain issues. At issue was whether the Indictment Clause of the Fifth Amendment required that an aggravating factor relied on as the basis for the imposition of the death sentence in a state prosecution for capital murder be alleged in the indictment; whether the Sixth Amendment required that such aggravating factor be found by a jury beyond a reasonable doubt; and whether the Sixth Amendment required that the aggravating factor relied on by the State for the imposition of a death sentence be alleged in a state court indictment charging the defendant with capital murder. The court held that, in rejecting petitioner's Indictment Clause claim, the Florida Supreme Court did not hand down a decision contrary to a Supreme Court holding; Evans v. Sec'y, Fla. Dep't of Corrs., which was indistinguishable from the case here, required that the court affirm the district court's resolution of the Sixth Amendment issue; and there was no reason to require the State to notify defendants of the aggravating factors that it intended to prove.
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    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    In today's United States Supreme Court orders, Grim's petition for writ of certiorari was DENIED.

    Ruling could result in an execution date.
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

    "Y'all be makin shit up" ~ Markeith Loyd

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    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    Judge denies re-sentencing for Santa Rosa death row inmate

    Judge Ross Goodman on Wednesday denied a Santa Rosa County death row inmate's motion for a new penalty phase proceeding.

    Norman Grim was convicted of the murder and sexual battery of Cynthia Campbell in 2000. He sought a new sentencing period under revised Florida death penalty laws that came into effect in March.

    The new law requires a unanimous jury verdict for a defendant to be sentenced to death. Previously, juries needed a 10-2 vote to send someone to death row, but the local case Hurst v. Florida set the precedent for changing the law. Hurst's counsel claimed it was unconstitutional to send someone to death without a unanimous ruling.

    Unlike Hurst, however, Grim’s jury verdict was a unanimous verdict, according to a State Attorney's Office news release issued Wednesday.

    A jury found Grim guilty of first-degree murder and sexual battery with the use of a deadly weapon in the death of Campbell, his neighbor. On July 27, 1998, Campbell's bookkeeper went to her home, and when she couldn’t find Campbell, she called police, according to a summary of the case by the Florida Supreme Court.

    Witnesses around the Pensacola Bay Bridge reported to police that they saw Grim later that day wearing similar clothing as he had been when police questioned him at Campbell's house in the morning.

    One of the witnesses who saw Grim was fishing off the bridge and hooked a human body wrapped in a shower curtain, sheets and masking tape.

    Police determined the sheets that Campbell's body was wrapped in belonged to Grim, and a piece of green carpet found with the body was similar to the kind Grim had laying over his back porch, the summary states.

    Other items linking Grim to the murder were found in a cooler at the man's home, including Campbell's eye glasses.

    Grim is among several local death row inmates who have attempted to be re-sentenced under the Hurst ruling.

    At a recent hearing, Leonard Patrick Gonzalez Jr. tried to be re-sentenced for his role in the death of Byrd and Melanie Billings at their Beulah home.

    Willie Hodges, who was convicted in killing of Patricia Belanger with a claw hammer and knife, will be re-sentenced under the ruling.

    Juries recommended both Gonzalez and Hodges be sent to death in votes on 10-2.

    http://www.pnj.com/story/news/crime/...rim/101511564/
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

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    Senior Member CnCP Legend Mike's Avatar
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    Today the Florida Supreme Court denied his Hurst appeal.

    http://www.floridasupremecourt.org/d.../sc17-1071.pdf
    Last edited by Mike; 03-29-2018 at 05:30 PM.

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    Administrator Moh's Avatar
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    Florida Supreme Court Rejects Santa Rosa County Death Row Appeal

    The Florida Supreme Court on Thursday rejected appeals by two Death Row inmates who were convicted of murdering women in the 1990s in Santa Rosa and Hillsborough counties.

    One of the appeals was filed by Norman Grim, who was sentenced to death in the 1998 murder of Cynthia Campbell, whose body was found by a fisherman floating off the Pensacola Bay Bridge, according to a brief by Attorney General Pam Bondi’s office.

    The victim, who was wrapped in a sheet, a shower curtain and masking tape, had been beaten in the face and suffered multiple stab wounds to the chest.

    The other appeal was filed by Samuel Smithers, who was convicted in the 1996 murders of Cristy Cowan and Denise Roach. The bodies of the women were found in a Hillsborough County pond, with a 2002 Supreme Court summary of the case saying both women had been strangled and suffered other injuries, including “chop” wounds to Cowan’s head.

    The appeals dealt with issues related to a 2016 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in an Escambia County case known as Hurst v. Florida and a subsequent Florida Supreme Court decision.

    The 2016 U.S. Supreme Court ruling found Florida’s death-penalty sentencing system was unconstitutional because it gave too much authority to judges, instead of juries. The subsequent Florida Supreme Court ruling said juries must unanimously agree on critical findings before judges can impose death sentences and must unanimously recommend the death penalty.

    Juries unanimously recommended death sentences for Grim and Smithers.

    But the appeals decided Thursday involved questions about the other findings needed to sentence defendants to death.

    Chief Justice Jorge Labarga and justices R. Fred Lewis, Alan Lawson, Charles Canady and Ricky Polston agreed to reject both appeals. Justice Barbara Pariente supported rejecting the appeal in the Smithers case but dissented in the Grim case. Justice Peggy Quince dissented in both cases.

    http://www.northescambia.com/2018/03...ath-row-appeal

  8. #8
    Senior Member CnCP Legend Mastro Titta's Avatar
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    In today's United States Supreme Court orders, Grim's petition for a writ of certiorari was DENIED.

    Lower Ct: Supreme Court of Florida
    Case Numbers: (SC17-1071)
    Decision Date: March 29, 2018
    Rehearing Denied: May 22, 2018

    https://www.supremecourt.gov/orders/...18zor_19m2.pdf

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