On October 12, Tennessee Judge James Beasley Jr. (pic­tured) over­turned the con­vic­tion and death sen­tence of Michael Rimmer because crit­i­cal evi­dence, not pre­sent­ed at his tri­al, throws doubt on Rimmer’s guilt. The court ruled that Rimmer’s ​“over­bur­dened” tri­al lawyers repeat­ed­ly failed to uncov­er evi­dence that two oth­er men were seen at the vic­tim’s last loca­tion around the time of her dis­ap­pear­ance, and both had blood on their hands. One of the men was already want­ed in con­nec­tion with anoth­er stab­bing. Moreover, one of the men was report­ed­ly car­ry­ing what looked like a heavy object wrapped in a com­forter and loaded it into the trunk of a car. The court found that the lead pros­e­cu­tor in the case com­pound­ed the injus­tice by mak­ing ​“bla­tant­ly false, inap­pro­pri­ate and eth­i­cal­ly ques­tion­able” state­ments to Rimmer’s defense lawyers, deny­ing the exis­tence of such evi­dence. The court ordered a new tri­al for Rimmer.

Rimmer has been on death row for 14 years. The vic­tim’s body, that of Rimmer’s ex-girl­friend, was never found. 

(B. Heath, ​“Tennessee death-row inmate’s con­vic­tion over­turned,” USA Today, October 12, 2012). See Representation. Listen to our pod­cast on Represenation.

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