If the police have seen the movie, do not use the movie as a plan to drown your wife during an evening cruise at a resort!

2016-M-308         Thomas Daniel Rhodes, Appellant, vs. State of Minnesota, Respondent.

On August 2, 1999, Rhodes returned from an evening cruise and reported that his wife had fallen from the boat and drowned near Spicer.  Her body was recovered, but not in the area where Rhodes had said she had drowned.  Her body bore marks of repeated blows to her throat, face, and skull.

Rhodes was convicted of first-degree murder in 2000.  After Rhodes withdrew his direct appeal in 2000 in order to file a more detailed first post-conviction appeal, the Supreme Court rejected his claims of ineffective assistance of counsel, newly-discovered evidence, and in 2001 (Rhodes I).   But the Supreme Court also remanded the first post-conviction appeal back to the post-conviction court to conduct an evidentiary hearing to determine whether trial counsel’s performance was objectively unreasonable.  After the post-conviction court held the hearing and rejected Rhodes’ claims, the Supreme Court vacated its stay of Rhodes consolidated first appeals (Rhodes II) in 2003.

The post-conviction court did not abuse its discretion by summarily denying appellant's third and fourth petitions for post-conviction relief because the petitions are untimely under the post-conviction statute of limitations.

               Wright (Gildea, Dietzen, and Stras)

               Dissent:  Anderson and Lillehaug

               Took No Part:  Hudson

[CRIME] [MURDER] [FIRST-DEGREE [ [DOMESTIC] [DISSENT]

Date: February 17, 2016