The Tennessee Supreme Court has upheld the death sentence of Joel Richard Schmeiderer for the first degree premeditated murder of Tom Harris, a fellow inmate at the South Central Correctional Center in Clifton, Tenn.
On July 11, 2001, Schmeiderer used a sock to strangle Harris to death in the victim’s cell. Schmeiderer admitted to killing Harris because he felt the victim’s sentence wasn’t long enough and that the murder would get him back into court, providing an opportunity to escape.
In a unanimous opinion authored by Justice Janice M. Holder, the Court reiterated that during a sentencing hearing, the State may only introduce rebuttal evidence that relates to the mitigating factors raised by the defendant.
During the guilt phase of the trial, it was established that Schmeiderer’s co-defendant, Charles Sanderson, was convicted of the first degree premeditated murder of Harris and that Sanderson had prior convictions of burglary, larceny and armed robbery. However, the defendant did not enter the prior convictions into evidence during the sentencing phase of the trial. Yet, the prosecutor proceeded to address Sanderson’s prior convictions during the opening arguments of the sentencing phase.
The Court found that the trial court erred in allowing the State to introduce Sanderson’s prior convictions as rebuttal evidence during the sentencing phase because the defendant did not first introduce them into evidence as a mitigating factor. However, the Court concluded that this error was harmless and did not affect the outcome of the sentence because the jury had already heard proof of Sanderson’s prior convictions during the guilt phase of the trial.
The Supreme Court rejected all of the other issues raised in Schmeiderer’s automatic appeal and affirmed the decision of the Court of Criminal Appeals. The Court held that the sentence was not imposed arbitrarily, nor was the sentence excessive or disproportionate. The Court set Schmeiderer’s execution date at September 13, 2011.