Rogers v. Westbrooks, 3:13-cv-00141

• Decision Date: 25 March 2019
• Docket Number: NO. 3:13-cv-00141,3:13-cv-00141
• Parties: WILLIAM GLENN ROGERS, Petitioner, v. BRUCE WESTBROOKS, Warden, Respondent.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Middle District of Tennessee

WILLIAM GLENN ROGERS, Petitioner, v. BRUCE WESTBROOKS, Warden, Respondent.

NO. 3:13-cv-00141

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT MIDDLE DISTRICT OF TENNESSEE NASHVILLE DIVISION

March 25, 2019

CHIEF JUDGE CRENSHAW

DEATH PENALTY CASE

MEMORANDUM OPINION

Petitioner William Glenn Rogers, a prisoner on Tennessee's death row at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution, has filed a petition under 28 U.S.C. § 2254 for the writ of habeas corpus. The operative petition under review is the amended petition filed by appointed counsel on November 7, 2013.¹ (Doc. No. 14.) Respondent filed an answer (Doc. No. 29), in which he denied that Petitioner is entitled to any relief, along with more than 9,600 pages of the state court records pertaining to Petitioner's conviction. (Doc. Nos. 24-26.) Both Petitioner and Respondent sought permission to conduct discovery (Doc. Nos. 33, 34, 42, 83), which the Court granted to a large degree. (Doc. Nos. 37, 75, 50, 89.) Respondent filed a motion for summary judgment on September 29, 2016, along with a 232 page memorandum in support. (Doc. No. 95.) On February 28, 2017, Petitioner filed a 535 page response to the motion, accompanied by more than 12,700 pages of exhibits. (Doc. Nos. 111-129.) Respondent filed a reply in support of his motion on June 27, 2017 (Doc. No. 134), followed by Petitioner's surreply on August 15, 2017. (Doc. No. 138.) The motion is fully briefed and ripe for decision. For the reasons set forth below, the Court willgrant Respondent's motion.

I. FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

The Tennessee Supreme Court summarized the facts introduced at trial as follows:

At the guilt phase of the trial, the State presented proof that on July 3, 1996, nine-year-old Jacqueline ("Jackie") Beard was playing with her twelve-year-old brother, Jeremy Beard, and her eleven-year-old cousin, Michael Carl Webber, at a mud puddle near her home in the Cumberland Heights area of Clarksville in Montgomery County. The defendant, thirty-four-year-old William Glenn Rogers, approached the children and introduced himself as "Tommy Robertson." He said he was an undercover police officer, offered the children fireworks, and invited them to go swimming. Jackie went home and told her mother, Jeannie Meyer, about the man. Mrs. Meyer took Jackie back to the mud puddle to investigate. While the children played with the fireworks, Mrs. Meyer talked with Rogers, who continued to identify himself as undercover officer Tommy Robertson. After approximately thirty-five minutes, Rogers left in his car.

At around 1:30 p.m. on July 8, 1996, Rogers appeared at the Meyer residence asking about a lost key. Jackie was with her mother when Mrs. Meyer spoke with Rogers. Rogers was last seen walking down the road toward a nearby abandoned trailer. A few minutes later, Mrs. Meyer gave Jackie permission to pick blackberries to take to the doctor's office where Mrs. Meyer had an appointment that afternoon. Jackie changed her shorts immediately before leaving the house. At 1:55 p.m., Mrs. Meyer was ready to leave and called for Jackie but could not find her. At around 2:00 p.m., a neighbor, Mike Smith, saw a car matching the description of Rogers' car leaving the immediate area. Smith had seen the same car heading in the direction of the Meyer residence about an hour or two earlier. Mrs. Meyer searched the area by car and on foot to no avail. Jackie was never seen alive again.

Mrs. Meyer reported her daughter's disappearance to the authorities. A composite drawing of the suspect was published in the Clarksville newspaper. Several people reported to the Montgomery County Sheriff's Department that the person in the drawing resembled Rogers.

On July 11, 1996, law enforcement officers questioned Rogers, who at first denied being in the Cumberland Heights area. In his next interview, however, Rogers told the officers that he had been in the area on July 3, 1996, shooting fireworks with three boys. He later acknowledged that Jackie was one of the three children. Rogers admitted speaking with Mrs. Meyer about his lost key on July 8, 1996, but denied seeing Jackie that day. He said he walked to the abandoned trailer, went to the bathroom there, and then left in his car to look for a job. As the questioning continued, Rogers changed his story again and acknowledged that Jackie was present during his conversation with her mother on July 8, 1996. Rogers ultimately confessed that, after leaving the abandoned trailer, he accidently ran over Jackie as he backed up his car. Rogers said he heard a thud, discovered the victim under thecar, and pulled her out. Her chest was moving as she tried to inhale, and blood was coming out of her nose. Rogers saw tire tracks across her right calf, right shoulder, and neck. He covered the victim's head with a shirt that he removed from the trunk of the car. Rogers placed the victim in the front passenger seat of the car, drove to a bridge over the Cumberland River, and threw her body, along with a sandal that had fallen from her foot, into the water. He stated that he did not touch her "in any way sexually or abusive." Rogers reduced this story to writing and signed the statement. Rogers made a diagram depicting how his car had run over the victim. He also signed the back of a photograph of the victim where he had written, "This is the girl I hit."

The following day, July 12, 1996, when officers asked Rogers about the possibility that the victim's fingerprints were in the car, Rogers changed his story yet again. In a second written statement, Rogers corrected his earlier statement by adding that the victim had gotten into the passenger side of his car and talked to him for about five minutes before she left saying her mother had to go to the doctor. Later on July 12, 1996, Rogers went with officers and his court-appointed attorney to the sites where he allegedly had run over the victim and thrown her body into the river. Rogers re-enacted the events of July 8, 1996, in a manner consistent with his written statements.

Investigation of the abandoned trailer showed that the victim's home and yard were visible from a bay window. A search of Rogers' car revealed a handheld telescope, a can of glass cleaner, and a map opened to the Middle Tennessee region, including the Land Between the Lakes area. A floor mat was on the driver's side but not the passenger's side. Although Rogers' fingerprints were on loose items in the car, officers found no fingerprints on the car's interior surfaces. Divers searched in the Cumberland River near the bridge where Rogers said he had thrown the victim's body, but nothing was found.

On November 8, 1996, four months after the victim's disappearance, two deer hunters discovered the victim's skull in a remote, wooded area in Land Between the Lakes in Stewart County. DNA analysis of the teeth established that the mitochondrial DNA sequence matched the DNA sample from the victim's mother. The skeletal remains of the victim were scattered around the area, which was several hundred yards from the Cumberland River and approximately forty-eight miles from her home. Both of the victim's sandals were found at the scene. The clothing worn by the victim when she disappeared was strewn near the bones. Her shirt had been turned completely inside out, and human semen stains were on the inside crotch of her shorts. A DNA sequence could not be obtained from the semen stains for comparison to the DNA sample provided by Rogers. FN2 However, fibers consistent with carpet in Rogers' house were found in his car and on the victim's shorts.

FN2: Meghan Clement, an expert in forensic serology and DNA analysis, explained that there were four possible reasons that she was unable to obtain a sequence from the stain: the DNA was too degraded; the quantity of the DNA in the sample was insufficient;the DNA in the sample came from multiple sources, either two sources of semen or one source of semen and vaginal fluid from the victim; or the chemical inhibitors from environmental contaminants prevented the sequence from being obtained.

Dr. Murray K. Marks, a forensic anthropologist, examined the victim's skeletal remains. He testified that the remains had been in the area from three to ten months. Dr. Marks explained that some of the victim's bones—the hands, the feet, one entire leg, and the lower part of another leg—were never recovered and probably had been removed from the scene by animals. Dr. Marks could not determine the cause of death but stated that he found no ante-mortem trauma to the bones such as would be expected had a car run over the victim. Likewise, Dr. Robert Lee, the Stewart County Medical Examiner, was unable to determine the cause or manner of the victim's death.

Rogers' estranged wife, Juanita Rogers, testified that on July 4, 1996, she and Rogers went to Land Between the Lakes. On the drive back, they stopped at a picnic area off Dover Road about ten to fifteen miles from where the victim's body was found. After walking in the woods, Rogers remarked to his wife that "you could bury a body back here and nobody would ever find it." Mrs. Rogers also testified that on July 8, 1996, the day of the victim's disappearance, she did not see Rogers from before lunch until after 6:00 p.m. When he appeared that evening, his pants were muddy at the knees. The outside of the car also was muddy. Rogers told his wife that he had been in a tobacco field on Dover Road. When she noticed a spot of blood on his shirt, he told her that he had cut his finger, but she did not see a cut. Although she had given Rogers money to put gasoline in the car earlier in the day, the tank was almost empty. Mrs. Rogers also noticed small fingerprints on the inside of the passenger side windshield. The muddy prints went down the windshield. When asked by his wife if a child had been in the car, Rogers said no.

Mrs. Rogers further testified that on July 9, 1996, the day following the victim's disappearance, she accompanied Rogers to the garbage dump. Sh

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