Justices, in a 26-page unanimous opinion, rejected arguments including that “newly discovered” evidence about sexual abuse and trafficking that Rogers suffered as a child should spare him from being executed on May 15.
The court also turned down an argument that using the state’s lethal-injection procedure on Rogers likely would violate the U.S. Constitution’s 8th Amendment ban on cruel and unusual punishment. That argument was based on Rogers having a medical condition known as porphyria and the potential interaction with etomidate, a sedation drug used in the procedure.
The Mayo Clinic website described porphyria as a “group of rare disorders that result from a buildup of natural chemicals called porphyrins in the body.” It said high levels of porphyrins can cause problems in the nervous system and skin.
“Rogers speculates that when etomidate is administered, the drug could induce a porphyria attack and create a substantial risk that Rogers will suffer from extreme and excruciating abdominal pain, tachycardia, hypertension, nausea, vomiting, and seizures,” the Supreme Court opinion said. “But this court has repeatedly upheld Florida’s lethal injection protocol, including the etomidate protocol. … And Rogers does not explain how his speculative porphyria attack overcomes the well-established fact that the administration of etomidate will render him unconscious likely within one minute.”
DeSantis on April 15 signed a death warrant for Rogers, 62, who would be the fifth inmate executed this year in Florida. Final appeals typically are filed at the U.S. Supreme Court, though it was not immediately clear Thursday evening whether Rogers’ attorneys had filed such an appeal.
Rogers was convicted in the November 1995 stabbing death of Tina Marie Cribbs after they met at a bar. Rogers stole Cribbs’ car and was later arrested in Kentucky after leading police on a high-speed chase, according to a brief filed last week by the Attorney General’s Office. He also was convicted of murdering a woman in California and was a suspect in murders in Louisiana and Mississippi.
Thursday’s opinion included a graphic description of the stabbing of Cribbs, whose body was found by a cleaner in the motel room bathtub.“Cribbs had been stabbed once in the chest and once in the buttocks. The state’s forensic pathologist later testified that the stab wounds were L-shaped wounds, indicating that the perpetrator had inserted a very long knife, then after an interval, twisted the instrument to a perfect 90-degree angle, then pulled it out,” the opinion said. “These stab wounds were both deliberate and fatal, slicing through major arteries that caused Cribbs to bleed out. She was stabbed with her clothing on and was conscious.”
The Florida Conference of Catholic Bishops on Thursday released a letter it had sent to DeSantis asking that Rogers’ sentence be commuted to life in prison. Michael Sheedy, the conference’s executive director, described the murders of Cribbs and the victim in California as “terrible crimes, and we mourn the tragic deaths of the victims and pray for the repose of their souls.”
But the letter urged DeSantis to spare Rogers’ life.
“We appeal to you that it is possible both to achieve the purposes of punishment and to exercise mercy,” Sheedy wrote. “We can entrust the final judgment of every individual to God.”
In trying to halt the execution, Rogers’ attorneys tried to bolster their arguments by pointing to newly passed legislation related to sexual abuse and trafficking of children.
The legislation (SB 1804) could lead to the death penalty for adults who traffic children under age 12 for sexual exploitation. Rogers’ attorneys contended that the legislation “reflects the conscious of Florida’s citizens in protecting children from the manner of abuse that Rogers suffered as a child” and that if such information was presented to a jury, it likely would lead to Rogers receiving a recommendation of a life sentence.
But the Supreme Court disputed that the legislation constituted newly discovered evidence. It said, in part, that Rogers had raised issues about being sexually abused as a child in a previous unsuccessful appeal.
Subscribe to Creative Loafing newsletters.
Follow us: Google News | NewsBreak | Reddit | Instagram | Facebook | BlueSky
This article appears in May 8-14, 2025.