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Thread: Michael Dale Rimmer - Tennessee Death Row

  1. #11
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    Memphis capital murder retrial set for July 14

    By Lawrence Buser
    The Commercial Appeal

    A July 14 [2014] retrial date was set Thursday for a former Southaven man who was sent to death row in 1998 after being convicted of murdering his ex-girlfriend, whose body was never found.

    Michael Dale Rimmer, who has been sentenced to death by two different juries, last year won a new trial after a judge ruled his lawyers were ineffective and that prosecutors and police acted improperly.

    He was convicted of killing Ricci Lynn Ellsworth, who disappeared Feb. 8, 1997, from the Memphis Inn at I-40 and Sycamore View where she was the night clerk.

    The office showed signs of a violent struggle, with blood and broken bathroom facilities, but her body was never found.

    Rimmer, who previously had served time for assaulting and raping Ellsworth, was arrested a month later in Indiana driving a stolen car with her blood in the back seat.

    Jailhouse informants said Rimmer had vowed to kill her when he got out and that he later boasted about it afterward.

    He was convicted and sentenced to death in 1998, but won a new sentencing trial when an appeals court ruled that incorrect jury forms were used. His conviction was upheld.

    In 2004 a new jury again sentenced Rimmer to death, but last October Criminal Court Judge James Beasley Jr. awarded Rimmer a new trial, ruling that defense attorneys did not adequately represent him and that police and prosecutors were not forthcoming with evidence favorable to the defense.

    Earlier this year, Rimmer told Judge Chris Craft that he wanted to represent himself, but later reconsidered and agreed to cooperate with an appointed defense attorney.

    The trial is expected to last up to two weeks.

    Ricci Ellsworth, 45, was married and the mother of two children. Her husband, Donald Ellsworth, was killed on Christmas Eve of 2011 in his Memphis home by a nephew wielding an ax.

    That case is pending in the same courtroom.

    http://www.commercialappeal.com/news...t-for-july-14/

  2. #12
    Administrator Moh's Avatar
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    Shelby County Prosecutor Censured by Tennessee Supreme Court

    By Toby Sells
    The Memphis Flyer

    A high-ranking Shelby County prosecutor was publicly reprimanded by the Tennessee Supreme Court late last month for what some say amounts to hiding evidence in a murder trial and his office said they don’t plan any disciplinary action against him.

    Shelby County Assistant District Attorney Thomas Henderson pleaded guilty to violating Tennessee Supreme Court evidence rules and was censured by the body on Monday, December 23.

    “While prosecuting a capital murder case in 1998, and again in 2004 during a retrial, Mr. Henderson responded to the discovery in a manner that did not make timely disclosure of all exculpatory evidence,” according to the release from the Board of Professional Responsibility of the Supreme Court of Tennessee.

    Larry Buser, a spokesman for Shelby County District Attorney Amy Weirich’s office, said flatly that his office plans no reprimand for the attorney.

    “Tom has been a long-time prosecutor in this office; he’s been here since 1976,” Buser said. “He’s prosecuted over 400 jury trials, including 50 first-degree murder trials, many of them the most heinous in Shelby County. He’s never been disciplined and never had a disciplinary action in all that time.”

    A censure is a “rebuke and a warning to the attorney, but does not affect the attorney’s ability to practice law,” according to information released by the court a week after the censure on Monday, December 30.

    At the center of Henderson’s censure is the capital murder case of Michael Rimmer, who was convicted for killing motel clerk Ricci Ellsworth. The victim’s body has never been found.

    Rimmer was originally convicted in 1998 and again in a 2004 re-trial. Henderson served as prosecuting attorney in both cases. The 2004 re-trial was granted because a judge ruled that Henderson had suppressed evidence in the original trial.

    Rimmer, now a death row inmate, will get a new trial in July as a judge ordered that it was likely that Henderson had suppressed evidence that could have helped Rimmer’s defense.

    Rimmer’s attorneys have requested a special prosecutor to be brought in for his new trial.

    http://www.memphisflyer.com/NewsBlog...-supreme-court

  3. #13
    Administrator Moh's Avatar
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    Special prosecutor will handle Memphis retrial of man convicted in 1998 of killing ex-girlfriend

    By Beth Warren
    The Commercial Appeal

    Shelby County Dist. Atty. Gen. Amy Weirich has decided to allow someone from outside her office to handle the retrial of a death penalty defendant after the prosecutor originally in charge of the case was sanctioned for misconduct following an investigation by a disciplinary arm of the state Supreme Court.

    Weirich sent an alert Friday morning to reporters announcing a 2:30 p.m. news conference, but she did not specify what it was about.

    A source with knowledge of the situation confirmed that Weirich plans to ask the Tennessee District Attorneys General Conference in Nashville, to appoint a special prosecutor to handle the Michael Dale Rimmer trial. The conference serves as a liaison between district attorneys general and other agencies, including the General Assembly, the executive branch and the courts.

    In 1998, a Shelby County jury convicted Rimmer of killing his ex-girlfriend, Ricci Lynn Ellsworth, 45, even though her body was never found. In 2012, Criminal Court Judge James Beasley Jr. overturned the murder conviction and death sentence in a 200-page ruling that blasted both prosecutors and the defense for missteps. The judge disqualified the lead prosecutor, Thomas Henderson, from handling the retrial because Henderson didn’t directly provide or acknowledge evidence that could have helped the defense at trial, an eyewitness who claimed to have seen two men with blood on their hands the night the victim disappeared from a Memphis motel.

    In December, the Tennessee Supreme Court issued a public sanction against Henderson, who supervises other prosecutors who handle felony cases, for his “misconduct” in the case.

    Weirich, who has defended Henderson’s reputation, appointed two other prosecutors to take over Rimmer’s retrial, set in July before Criminal Court Judge Chris Craft. But defense attorneys Robert Parris and Paul Bruno filed a motion, still pending, to ask Craft to disqualify Weirich’s entire office.

    http://www.commercialappeal.com/news...n-rimmer-case/

  4. #14
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    Death penalty trial opens in killing of Memphis motel clerk

    Seventeen years after he was sentenced to death in the killing of 45-year-old Ricci Ellsworth, Michael Rimmer walked into Shelby County Criminal Court and sat beside his attorneys.

    Rimmer's new trial, which was ordered in 2012, opened Thursday. The trial comes after a judge found Rimmer's defense counsel, both in 1998 and at a later resentencing, failed to effectively investigate the capital case. Shelby County Criminal Court Judge James Beasley Jr., a former prosecutor, found that the Shelby County lawyer who prosecuted Rimmer, Thomas Henderson, "purposefully misled" Rimmer's defense counsel about evidence.

    Ellsworth disappeared in February 1997 from the Memphis Inn near Interstate 40 and Sycamore View where she was a night clerk. Her body was never found. Large amounts of blood and the ring she always wore were found in the employee bathroom.

    "Revenge and robbery," said Pam Anderson, of the Davidson County District Attorney's office, who is one of the prosecutors of the retrial. "That's what this case is about."

    In 1989, Rimmer raped Ellsworth and was sent to prison, Anderson said.

    Ellsworth forgave him and visited him in prison.

    "She was a very forgiving woman," Anderson said.

    While incarcerated, Rimmer talked to another inmate about Ellsworth. He felt she owed him money, Anderson said. In 1996, before he was released from prison, he told another inmate he planned to kill her and talked about how to dispose of a body, Anderson said.

    "February 8, 1997, was the last time that anyone saw Ricci Lynn Ellsworth alive," Anderson said.

    Her son and daughter never heard from her again.

    On Feb. 8, 1997, between about 8:30 and 9 a.m., Rimmer came to his brother's house. He was muddy and had a shovel, Anderson said. The backseat was wet. The brother dumped the shovel and it was never seen again, Anderson said.

    Rimmer was stopped March 5, 1997, in Johnson County, Indiana for speeding. Blood consistent with the female offspring of Ellsworth's mother was found in the car.

    Ellsworth was kind-hearted, said her sister, Dianne Faulk.

    "We were devastated by my sister's murder," she said.

    Faulk said there is "no doubt in any of our minds and hearts, that he did kill her."

    Defense attorney Paul Bruno said two people had something to do with what happened to Ellsworth, but neither were Rimmer.

    "There is actually no definitive proof that she's deceased," Bruno said.

    Bruno said one of the inmates who came forward with information against Rimmer had been convicted of eight felony drug offenses. Another had a lengthy history of forgery and a conviction for voluntary manslaughter.

    Bruno said a credible witness, an Army sergeant named James Darnell, had been at the motel and saw two men who did not fit Rimmer's description with blood on their hands. Darnell saw a person put something heavy into the trunk of car. The object was wrapped in something cloth-like.

    Bruno said Darnell described two men and a composite sketch was printed in The Commercial Appeal.

    A lady in Arkansas identified one as Billy Wayne Voyles. Police put together a photo lineup with 44 white males, including Rimmer in jail clothing and a hat, Bruno said.

    "Of 44 people, who does he pick out? Billy Wayne Voyles," Bruno said. He did not pick out Rimmer.

    Bruno said the second person in the composite sketch had a full head of hair, while Rimmer looked similar in 1997 as he does today, is bald on the top of his head.

    http://www.commercialappeal.com/news...377465861.html
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  5. #15
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    Victim's family wants Rimmer case 'to be over with for good'

    Family members of a Memphis woman who disappeared in 1997 said Thursday they are “completely for the death penalty” in the case of the man charged with her killing, but they “want this to be over with for good.”

    "At this point we think it would be sufficient if he gets life in prison without the chance for parole," the family of 45-year-old Ricci Ellsworth said in a statement. "He needs to be locked away and forgotten about for ever! We don't want him to have the opportunity for an appeal so we have to relive this tragic event once again."

    Michael Rimmer, 50, is on trial in Shelby County Criminal Court for capital murder in the killing of Ellsworth, his former girlfriend. Special prosecutor Pam Anderson, of Davidson County, filed notice of intent to seek the death penalty relying on three aggravating factors, including that Rimmer was convicted previously of one or more felonies involving Ellsworth. Rimmer was convicted of raping Ellsworth in 1989. She disappeared Feb. 8, 1997, from her job as a night clerk at the Memphis Inn near Interstate 40 and Sycamore View.

    The trial began April 28 after three days of jury selection. Rimmer was convicted and sentenced to death in 1998, but a new trial was ordered in 2012. A judge found Rimmer's defense counsel, both in 1998 and at a resentencing, failed to effectively investigate the capital case.

    Shelby County Criminal Court Judge James Beasley Jr., a former prosecutor, found that the Shelby County prosecutor who handled the case, Thomas Henderson, "purposefully misled" Rimmer's defense counsel about evidence.

    Rimmer's mother, Sandra Rimmer, who has attended the trial, declined to comment while the proceedings are ongoing.

    People sentenced to death in Tennessee get an automatic appeal to the Court of Criminal Appeals. If that court affirms the conviction and sentence, the Tennessee Supreme Court automatically reviews it, according to the Administrative Office of the Courts.

    If the higher courts require a new trial or sentencing and the death sentence is again imposed, the appeals process starts again.

    Defendants sentenced to death also have a post-conviction appeal process. The Court of Criminal Appeals reviews the post-conviction proceedings, and defendants can ask for permission to appeal to the state Supreme Court.

    After the state post-conviction phase, defendants can file federal appeals in a U.S. District court that can be then appealed to the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals and the U.S. Supreme Court. The defendant can also raise mental competency issues as well as ask for clemency from the governor.

    Tennessee has executed six people since 1976, and the last execution was in 2009.

    Five of the six people were executed by lethal injection, and in 2007 the state electrocuted convicted killer Daryl Holton. Holton chose the method.

    http://www.commercialappeal.com/news...378339971.html
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    "Y'all be makin shit up" ~ Markeith Loyd

  6. #16
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    Man sentenced to death for third time in 1997 Memphis killing

    A Tennessee man has been sentenced to death for the third time in the 1997 killing of his former girlfriend, The Memphis Commercial Appeal reported.

    Michael Rimmer, 50, was sentenced to death first in 1998 and again in 2004 at a resentencing. He is convicted of killing Ricci Ellsworth, 45, who disappeared from her job in Memphis. Her body or the murder weapon have never been found, the newspaper reported.

    The Shelby County District Attorney said in 2014 that she "would ask for a special prosecutor to handle the trial," the Commercial Appeal reported.

    On Friday, jurors again convicted Rimmer of murder with premeditation and aggravated robbery.

    A judge ordered him to death by electrocution, or lethal injection if Rimmer preferred. The convicted killer will be in prison until all appeals have been exhausted, and then an execution date will be set.

    Rimmer was also convicted of raping Ellsworth in 1989, but the newspaper reported that she forgave him and visited him in prison.

    She was working her job as a night clerk at the Memphis Inn when she disappeared in 1997. Her blood and ring were found at the Inn, and the DNA matched blood in a car that Rimmer was driving in the months after the crime.

    Witnesses at the scene said that they saw two men with blood on their hands, and they identified those men in a lineup. Neither witnesses recognized Rimmer.

    http://www.al.com/news/index.ssf/201...h_for_thi.html
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

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

  7. #17
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    Death sentence and conviction affirmed on direct appeal.

    https://law.justia.com/cases/tenness...-ddt-dd-0.html
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  8. #18
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    Distributed for conference January 7, 2022.

    https://www.supremecourt.gov/search....c/21-6012.html
    Thank you for the adventure - Axol

    Tried so hard and got so far, but in the end it doesn’t even matter - Linkin Park

    Hear me, my chiefs! I am tired. My heart is sick and sad. From where the sun now stands, I will fight no more forever. - Hin-mah-too-yah-lat-kekt

    I’m going to the ghost McDonalds - Garcello

  9. #19
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    Petition for certiorari denied.

    Lower Ct: Supreme Court of Tennessee, Western Division
    Case Numbers: (W2017-00504-SC-DDT-DD)
    Decision Date: April 16, 2021
    Rehearing Denied: May 21, 2021

    https://www.supremecourt.gov/search....c/21-6012.html

  10. #20
    Senior Member Frequent Poster Ted's Avatar
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    According to a myriad of news articles, Rimmer had an administrative date set for 10 May, which has since been stayed.
    Violence and death seem to be the only answers that some people understand.

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