The retrial of a capital murder case with no body also may have no defense attorney.Former death row inmate Michael Dale Rimmer, who won a new trial last fall because his lawyers were inadequate, said Thursday he does not want his appointed attorney and that he wants to represent himself.Rimmer told Criminal Court Judge Chris Craft that a conflict of interest existed between him the attorney the judge appointed, Robert Parris.
Rimmer said he helped fellow death-row prisoner Henry Lee Jones file complaints against Parris, who represented Jones in 2009 when he was convicted and sentenced to death for the murders of an elderly Bartlett couple.
Defendants convicted of crimes frequently file complaints against their attorneys.
"I'll be glad to let you represent yourself if you qualify," the judge told Rimmer. "I'll just have some questions for you."
Craft set a hearing on the matter next week.
Rimmer, 46, was convicted and sentenced to death for the presumed murder of his former girlfriend, Ricci Lynn Ellsworth, who disappeared Feb. 8, 1997, from her job as night clerk at the Memphis Inn at I-40 and Sycamore View.
Signs of a violent struggle were left behind, with blood in the office bathroom, a broken commode and a cracked sink. Her body was never found.
Rimmer, who served prison time for assaulting and raping her in 1989, was arrested a month later driving a stolen car with her blood in the back seat. Jailhouse informants said he had vowed to kill her and that he later boasted of doing so.
He was convicted and sentenced to death in 1998, but later won a new sentencing trial because of improper jury forms.
Rimmer again was sentenced to death, but last October his conviction and death sentence were overturned by a judge who ruled that his defense attorneys were deficient and that prosecutors and police acted improperly.
On Thursday Rimmer said he did not want Parris to represent him and that, "I want to invoke my Sixth Amendment right to represent myself."
Craft told Rimmer that he has a constitutional right to represent himself, but that the judge must be sure that the defendant's decision is an intelligent and knowing waiver of that right and that he understands the consequences.
Defendants in capital murder trials are entitled to two attorneys.