TBA Law Blog


Posted by: Stacey Shrader Joslin on Apr 22, 2022

Death row inmate Michael Rimmer was scheduled to die May 10 but the execution was stayed after he filed a new petition for post-conviction relief, the Commercial Appeal reports. Rimmer was found guilty and sentenced to death in the 1997 death of his former girlfriend Ricci Lynn Ellsworth. An appeals court upheld the conviction but awarded him a new sentencing trial. A jury again gave him the death penalty in 2004. In 2016, Rimmer’s case went to trial again after a judge concluded his defense counsel was ineffective and the prosecution did not turn over exculpatory evidence. Again, he was convicted and sentenced to death. That decision was upheld by the Court of Criminal Appeals and Tennessee Supreme Court. Earlier this year, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to review the case. The new petition claims that Rimmer's previous legal teams were ineffective and the 2016 trial did not address those issues. It also claims that the 2016 trial violated his constitutional right against double jeopardy.