Robert Rimmer resentenced to life
After receiving a new penalty phase after Hurst, Robert Rimmer has been resentenced to life imprisonment.
Robert Rimmer has been resentenced to life after the state agreed to drop the death penalty in his resentencing granted in light of Hurst.1
Rimmer was sentenced to two sentences of death for crimes that occurred in May 1998. The jury recommended a sentence of death on both counts by a vote of 9-3.2
The Florida Supreme Court affirmed both sentences of death on direct appeal in a decision dated July 3, 2002 (just days after the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Ring). His sentence became final on November 18, 2002.
In June 2017, Rimmer was granted a new penalty phase after Hurst.
Litigation related to the new penalty phase has continued since 2017.
On July 14, the trial court entered an order vacating his death sentences.
On July 19, the court resentenced Rimmer to life imprisonment on both counts of first-degree murder.
The life sentences are to run “concurrent with [Rimmer’s sentences for] counts 3-11,” according to the Order.
Rimmer v. State, 825 So. 2d 304, 311 (Fla. 2002). Rimmer’s codefendant, Kevin Parker, was sentenced to life imprisonment. Id. at n.7. The two had separate penalty phases. Id.