State high court reverses death penalty in double murder case

The state Supreme Court granted relief in a death penalty appeal Monday after a referee's finding that a witness presented false testimony at the penalty phase.

The high court in 2006 affirmed a former Kern County sheriff's deputy's conviction for murdering a teenage girl and a woman but appointed a referee to examine elements of the penalty phase after the petitioner indicated new evidence would exonerate him.

David K. Rogers was convicted of first-degree murder of the 15-year-old girl in 1986 and second-degree murder of a woman the year before. Both victims worked as prostitutes. Rogers confessed to the 1986 murder of the girl but said he did not remember the woman. A court-appointed psychiatrist diagnosed Rogers with a "dissociative disorder involving memory loss and a possible multiple personality disorder stemming from severe childhood sexual and physical abuse."

Rogers was sentenced to death after prosecutors refuted the psychiatric testimony that Rogers was "incapable of premeditating or deliberating" based on his mental state by presenting two witnesses who were also prostitutes and alleged Rogers assaulted them.

After an evidentiary hearing, the referee, Kern County Judge Louis P. Etcheverry, determined one of the witnesses falsely identified Rogers as her assailant, and the court granted relief on the basis of false evidence. In re Rogers, 2019 DAR 6567 (Cal. July, 15, 2019).

Cathal Conneely, public information officer for the Supreme Court, said the court has reversed a number death penalties in recent years for both automatic appeals and habeas corpus matters.

The attorney general's office said it was reviewing the court's decision.

-- Paula Lehman-Ewing