Hillsboro Killer won’t find relief at Tampa Court as executions are approaching

TAMPA – Attorney for Glenn Rogers, accused of dying next month for the 1995 Hillsboro County murder, says his medical condition jeopardizes fatal injections and suggests squads and fatal gases will be fired as alternative ways of doing it.

Florida law does not allow the latter two options, but the proposal is part of a last-minute effort to prevent Rogers from dying.

Rogers’ defense raised the issue at a court hearing Tuesday morning, with a revived claim that he was a victim of childhood sex trafficking as he fights to halt the May 15 execution.

“He needs to be told,” Ali Shakoa, one of Rogers’ attorneys, said during the one-hour hearing. “The modern ju judges did not put Mr. Rogers on the death penalty.”

Attorney General Stephen Ake argued that Rogers’ claims were neither new nor timely.

Hillsboro Circuit Judge Judge Michelle Cisco agreed. Citing case law, she declined Rogers’ request for a full evidence hearing.

In a court paper filed before Tuesday’s hearing, Rogers’ lawyer said he was suffering from porphyria, a disorder that causes neurological problems, skin sensitivity and liver dysfunction. Symptoms of the condition can be exacerbated by certain drugs. These include etomidate, one of the substances used in Florida’s lethal injection procedures.

The drug is likely to suffer from a “porphyria attack” that causes great pain, making it impossible for the state to humanely execute his execution, the lawyers argued.

The law requires that accused lawyers suggest alternative ways of doing so when they raise such a challenge. Rogers’ team proposed firing squads and deadly gas. A handful of states using these methods. Florida is not one of them.

Florida allows electric chairs as an option, but they have not been used since 1999. Rogers’ lawyers opined that the chair was cruel and inhumane. He suggested firing squads and gas “reducing violent and deadly alternatives.”

In the same court paper, Defense summed up Rogers’ history of enduring sexual abuse in childhood.

It started when he was 10 years old. He was “pinned out” by his brother and others in his hometown of Hamilton, Ohio, the paper said. Throughout the age of 12, he spent time in a nearby brothel called “Cathoth,” where he was raped by both women and men.

These stories have been revealed in recent years, Shakoa said. He said child sex trafficking has since become a concern issue for Florida State Assemblymen and the public. If a new ju umpire hears about Rogers’ childhood, he argued, they may recommend a life sentence.

“He has to talk about that,” Shakor said.

The court papers include names of people who may be able to support the allegations of abuse. He also references a former FBI agent who has met with Rogers in recent years to discuss abuse.

The sex trafficking allegations were filed in a previous appeal filed by Rogers in 2020.

Last week, Gov. Ron DeSantis signed Rogers’ death warrant. The 30-day period between warrants and enforcement is a very strict timeline, forcing state and defense attorneys to promptly sue his final appeal.

Rogers, 62, has been on death row for 28 years. Known as the “Casanova Killer” and “Cross-Country Killer”, he is suspected of several murders that occurred across the United States in the mid-1990s.

In Tampa, he was convicted of the 1995 murder of Tina Marie Cribbs. She met Rogers, a former carnival worker, at a bar and restaurant in Showtown USA. This is a hangout in Gibsonton, the town of South Hillsboro known as the Winter Home for Circus Workers.

Rogers bought a drink for a group of women who came with Cribs. She later agreed to him to ride a nearby carnival lot and told her friends that she was coming back. She never did.

Two days later, Cribbs was found dead in the tub at Room 119 at Tampa 8 Inn, a motel on Columbus Drive near the interstate. She was stabbed to death. The room was registered with Rogers. He was arrested about a week later after leading a Kentucky police officer in high speed pursuit.

In addition to the debate over the fatal injection and whether the ju judge should have heard of sexual abuse, his lawyer told the judge that Rogers has the right to represent him in his final appeal.

Shakoor works for Capital-Collected Regional Advisor, a state agency that provides legal representation to death row inmates. Rogers has complained for many years about the effectiveness of his representation by the agency, saying they will not pursue the legal claims he wants to make.

It created an ethical dispute, Shakur argued, demanding the appointment of another lawyer.

“Rogers simply wants a dispute-free lawyer to sue his claims he wants to take on a crisis in his life and file a lawsuit,” Shakur said. “We are raising the argument as a compromise, but we are not bringing up the claim that Mr. Rogers wants because he doesn’t believe them. We don’t think we can challenge our expression.”

Ake, a state lawyer, responded that the claim was premature and had no suggestion of an ethical dispute.

Rogers listened quietly during a video conference from the Florida State Prison, near Stark City, northeastern Florida.

At one point he spoke during a discussion of the timeliness of legal disputes.

“I filed a motion with the court,” he said. “I filed a notice to the court in the dispute a few years ago.”

The judge is expected to enter an order by Friday that officially denys Rogers’s claim. Rogers is likely to promote his case in the Florida Supreme Court and can appeal the federal court system.