Today in Shelby County, jury selection begins for the new trial of Tennessee death row inmate Michael Rimmer. He will be re-tried for the murder of Ricci Ellsworth, who disappeared from her workplace, the Memphis Inn, in 1997.

In 1989, Rimmer was sentenced to seven years in prison for the rape of Ricci Ellsworth, after the two had dated years before. A few months after Rimmer’s release, Ellsworth went missing. Upon investigation, traces of Ellsworth’s blood were found in Rimmer’s car, and he was convicted of murder and sentenced to death. In 2004, he was granted a new sentencing hearing and received a second death sentence.

In the following years, evidence of misconduct by Shelby County Assistant District Attorney Thomas Henderson began to surface. USA Today wrote an in depth piece on Rimmer’s case in 2011, reporting that Henderson withheld critical evidence from the defense of a very credible witness who saw two different men at the bloody crime scene on the night of Ellsworth’s disappearance —not Michael Rimmer.

The witness told police that he saw two white men with blood on their hands in the motel around the time Ellsworth went missing. The witness assumed that one of the men was the motel clerk because he was behind the office window and was handing what he thought was change to the other man. Both men had bloody knuckles so he thought they had been fighting. Then, in the parking lot, one of the men put something wrapped in a hotel comforter in the trunk of his car, something heavy enough to make the car drop from the weight of it. Jurors in Rimmer’s 1998 trial never knew an eyewitness claimed to have seen other suspects at the Memphis motel that evening.

In 2012, Judge James Beasley overturned Rimmer’s conviction and sentence, granting him a new trial. The Judge wrote in his order that “Henderson’s assertions in the 1998 and 2004 cases that ‘he knew of no evidence exonerating or exculpating (Rimmer)’ were blatantly false, inappropriate, and ethically questionable.”

The District Attorney’s office in Shelby County has a history of such tactics. When those sworn to uphold the law play fast and loose with it, how are we supposed to trust the results? And when the death penalty is on the table, the stakes are simply too high to cross our fingers and hope that folks are playing by the rules.

And regardless of the outcome of Rimmer’s second trial, Ricci Ellsworth’s family has been victimized again by a system in which those sworn to uphold the law seemed more interested in winning than in fairness and due process. When the rules aren’t followed, victims’ families suffer as they are dragged through their worst nightmare all over again. This is unacceptable.

Though ending the death penalty won’t fix all these problems, it will ensure that our system, as flawed as it is, does not have the power to decide who lives and dies and will allow for victims’ families to receive a measure of legal finality that the current death penalty system can’t give them.

Learn more about Rimmer’s trial.

Learn more about prosecutorial misconduct and the death penalty.

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Tennessee Alliance for the Severe Mental Illness Exclusion (TASMIE) publicly launched last week with an op-ed in the Knoxville News Sentinel by TASMIE Coordinator Hannah Cox. TASMIE is a coalition of mental health advocacy organizations and other groups educating Tennesseans about their concerns with sentencing those with severe mental illness to death.

The coalition currently includes Mental Health America of Middle Tennessee; NAMI Tennessee; Tennessee Disability Coalition; Tennessee Mental Health Consumers’ Association; National Association of Social Workers, Tennessee Chapter; Tennessee Conservatives Concerned about the Death Penalty; Tennesseans for Alternatives to the Death Penalty; and the American Civil Liberties Union of Tennessee.

TASMIE is educating citizens about what this exclusion will do if enacted, including:

• Save taxpayers millions
• Provide swifter legal finality to victims’ families
• Apply only to sentencing–individuals could still be found guilty and would be eligible for life or life without parole
• Extend something we already do in Tennessee as the current law excludes minors and those with intellectual disability from the death penalty
• Would be narrowly applied to only those individuals who fit very specific guidelines for severe mental illness
• Would affect a small percentage of cases as only 5-10% of death row inmates have the most severe mental illnesses

TASMIE Coordinator Hannah Cox is available to make presentations, submit articles, provide TASMIE fact sheets, etc. for any of you who would like more information or who are members of organizations, churches, or other groups who might be interested in getting involved.

To learn more, visit tasmie.org and follow TASMIE on Twitter /TASMIEOrg and Facebook /TASMIEOrg.

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Only one year ago, the Utah legislature reinstated the firing squad as a backup method of execution. This year, the conservative led legislature of Utah nearly passed a bill to repeal the death penalty completely. The bill passed the full Senate on March 2^nd with a 15-12 vote and then got through a key house committee on March 9th.  Late last night just before the session closed for the year,  the bill was held up in the Rules committee, keeping it from a vote on the House floor. Getting this close to repeal in Utah is a huge achievement, and we congratulate our colleagues in Utah for their amazing work.

Both Utah’s firing squad and repeal bills were largely the result of efforts of Republican Senator Steve Urquhart. Urquhart, who has long been a death penalty supporter, shifted his view in recent years because of the decades of delay and the exorbitant cost of the system, noting it is an “ineffective punishment.” ¹“

Senator Urquhart’s shift might seem out of the blue, but it is not. He, like other conservatives, are engaging in a changing conversation about the death penalty that is taking place nationwide. The historic repeal of the death penalty in Nebraska last year and Utah’s near success this year are evidence that conservative legislatures are catching on.

Likewise, in Tennessee, where the electric chair was reinstated as a back-up method for execution just a few years ago and whose legislature was recently deemed the “most conservative legislature in the nation“, the conversation is also shifting. As a TADP intern and participant in my very first TADP Justice Day on the Hill this week,  I had the opportunity to  hear directly from several members of the Tennessee legislature. Although many express no moral qualms with executions, there is growing concern about the costs, the toll the protracted process takes on victims’ family members, and the possibility of executing the innocent. Not despite their conservative values but because of them, many Tennessee lawmakers are increasingly concerned about the death penalty system. If the deep red states of Utah and Nebraska are any example, repeal in Tennessee might be closer than we think.

Fairly, there are numerous aspects you would like to think about medications. All discount medicaments save money, but few online drugstores offer better deals than other online drugstores. There isn’t anything you can’t order online anymore. Remedies like Deltasone ordinarily is used to treat diseases such as eye problems. Glucocorticoids naturally occurring steroids, which are easily absorbed from the gastrointestinal tract. There are varied drugs for every conditions. Cialis is a remedy prescribed to treat many illnesses. What do you already know about long term side effects of cialis? What consumers talk about how long does it take for cialis to take effect? A general sexual complaint among men is the erectile dysfunction. Sexual problems mostly signal deeper problems: low libido or erectile dysfunction can be the symptom a strong health problem such as core trouble. Albeit the erectile dysfunction itself isn’t necessarily dangerous, erectile dysfunction is sometimes one of the early warning symptoms of other underlying health conditions that can be highly dangerous. Unfortunately nearly all over-the-counter medicines have sometimes dangerous aftereffects, from muscle aches to death. If you buy any erectile dysfunction medicaments like Cialis, check with a physician that they are sure to take with your other drugs. Do not take unwanted medications. Take Cialis to your local chemist’s shop which will dispose of them for you.

The 2016 TADP Student Conference on the Death Penalty once again managed to combine powerful personal testimony, overwhelming evidence, and tools to make repeal a reality, all in a single day.

You could have heard a pin drop on Saturday morning, when Nebraska native Miriam Thimm Kelle shared her story about the horrific death of her brother James Kelle. James was tortured for three days and murdered in notorious cult killing when he was only 25 years old. Kelle talked about the excruciating thirty-year process of appeals her family endured as the state sought the death penalty for James’ killer, Michael Ryan. Kelle movingly shared about how her experience with the death penalty drove her work with the Nebraska legislature to enact death penalty repeal in 2015. Her work continues, as the issue will be voted on in a referendum this year.

Following Kelle’s presentation, the panel “The Changing Conversation on the Death Penalty” dissected the system, highlighting the flaws and the growing call for repeal from increasingly varied constituencies. Journalists Radley Balko and Liliana Segura, public defender Alexis Soler, and Tennessee Conservatives Concern Coordinator Amy Lawrence detailed points from their unique perspectives on the continuing momentum against the death penalty, including insights on legal procedure, forensic evidence, and dialogue among conservatives.

The Tennessee cases of Ndume Olatushani and Paul House were the focus of the next panel concerning how wrongful convictions happen. Public defenders Anne-Marie Moyes and Steve Kissinger, attorneys who worked on these specific cases, delivered accounts of what went wrong, bringing to light many of the systemic issues that still plague the death penalty system today, including prosecutorial misconduct and the precedence of process over getting to the truth. Joyce House, Paul’s mother and full-time caretaker, was on the panel. Paul was present, though unable to actively participate given his advanced multiple sclerosis. Paul was wrongfully convicted and spent nearly 22 years on Tennessee’s death row before his release. As Joyce recalled, “My son walked into prison but had to be rolled out in a wheelchair. He is still in it.”

A call to action concluded the conference, asking all the participants to attend Justice Day 2016 on March 9th, to speak with lawmakers about their concerns. A big thanks goes to everyone who participated in our conference this year. We hope to see you as we continue our work for death penalty repeal!

Samuel Turpen

Intern, TADP

Photo Credit: Rev. Dr. Jason Curry, Dean of Fisk Memorial Chapel

Fairly, there are numerous aspects you would like to think about medications. All discount medicaments save money, but few online drugstores offer better deals than other online drugstores. There isn’t anything you can’t order online anymore. Remedies like Deltasone ordinarily is used to treat diseases such as eye problems. Glucocorticoids naturally occurring steroids, which are easily absorbed from the gastrointestinal tract. There are varied drugs for every conditions. Cialis is a remedy prescribed to treat many illnesses. What do you already know about long term side effects of cialis? What consumers talk about how long does it take for cialis to take effect? A general sexual claim among men is the erectile disfunction. Sexual problems mostly signal deeper problems: low libido or erectile dysfunction can be the symptom a strong health problem such as soul trouble. Albeit the erectile disfunction itself isn’t necessarily dangerous, erectile disfunction is sometimes one of the early warning symptoms of other underlying heartiness conditions that can be highly dangerous. Unfortunately nearly all over-the-counter medicines have sometimes dangerous aftereffects, from muscle aches to death. If you buy any erectile disfunction medicaments like Cialis, check with a physician that they are sure to take with your other drugs. Do not take unwanted medications. Take Cialis to your local chemist’s shop which will dispose of them for you.

On January 26, Nebraska Republican Senator Colby Coash, a conservative who led Nebraska’s successful effort to repeal the death penalty last year, will be in Tennessee to speak at a community event at MTSU. Coash is traveling to the Volunteer State to engage in conversation with Tennesseans as he reflects on why he believes that the current death penalty system is inconsistent with conservative values.

Senator Coash was not always a supporter of death penalty repeal. However, after a college experience at the 1994 execution of William Otey in Nebraska, where people gathered at the prison to celebrate in a party-like atmosphere as Otey was executed, Coash was troubled. He reflects, “My position is the result of my experience. I made a decision during my shame that I would no longer be a part of someone’s death.”

More recently, Coash’s support for repeal was strengthened through conversations murder victims’ family members, particularly with Merriam Thimm Kelle, whose brother’s killer received the death sentence in Nebraska only to die of natural causes on death row thirty years later. (Ms. Kelle is the featured speaker for TADP’s 2016 Student Conference on the Death Penalty at Belmont University on Feb. 6). With the voices of murder victim’s families like Kelle’s, as well as those of death row exonerees who also shared their experiences with lawmakers in Nebraska, Senator Coash was able to lead the conservative legislature to repeal Nebraska’s death penalty.

Coash represents a growing number of conservatives who are raising such concerns. Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty, a national network of conservatives calling for a re-examination of our nation’s capital punishment system, identifies systemic problems with the death penalty system that are particularly troubling to conservatives, such as the risk of executing the innocent, the high cost to taxpayers compared with life without parole, the protracted process that is difficult for victims’ families, and giving such power to the government. Tennessee Conservatives Concern about the Death Penalty is also raising these concerns locally to give Tennessee conservatives a voice in the ongoing dialogue and is sponsoring Coash’s visit to Tennessee.

Whether you identify as a conservative or not, we encourage you to attend this event at MTSU in the Paul W. Martin Honors Building (Room 106) at 7:00 p.m. on Tuesday, January 26, to learn more about the senator’s own journey on this issue and how such a conservative state legislature like Nebraska finally championed death penalty repeal.

Sam Turpen

Intern, TADP

Fairly, there are numerous aspects you would like to think about medications. All discount medicaments save money, but few online drugstores offer better deals than other online drugstores. There isn’t anything you can’t order online anymore. Remedies like Deltasone ordinarily is used to treat diseases such as eye problems. Glucocorticoids naturally occurring steroids, which are easily absorbed from the gastrointestinal tract. There are varied drugs for every conditions. Cialis is a remedy prescribed to treat many illnesses. What do you already know about long term side effects of cialis? What consumers talk about how long does it take for cialis to take effect? A general sexual complaint among men is the erectile disfunction. Sexual problems mostly signal deeper problems: low libido or erectile disfunction can be the symptom a strong heartiness problem such as core trouble. Albeit the erectile disfunction itself isn’t necessarily dangerous, erectile disfunction is sometimes one of the early warning symptoms of other underlying soundness conditions that can be highly dangerous. Unfortunately nearly all over-the-counter medicines have sometimes dangerous aftereffects, from muscle aches to death. If you buy any erectile dysfunction medicaments like Cialis, check with a physician that they are sure to take with your other drugs. Do not take unwanted medications. Take Cialis to your local chemist’s shop which will dispose of them for you.