⚖ Oral Arguments, with Context

The Eleventh Circuit hears a Georgia death-penalty appeal brought by James Randall Rogers. Rogers was convicted in nineteen eighty-five of murdering Grace Perry in Rome, Georgia, and sentenced to death. One part of the prosecution's evidence was testimony linking a bite mark on his arm to Perry's dentures. Rogers challenges that evidence in light of later scientific developments, while the state maintains that other evidence supports the conviction. A separate jury trial in two thousand five rejected his claim of intellectual disability. That issue concerns eligibility for execution: Atkins holds that a person with intellectual disability may not be executed. After additional state challenges, a federal district court denied another habeas petition; this is the appeal from that denial. Federal habeas review considers whether custody violates federal law; it is not a new jury trial. You will hear AEDPA, the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act, which restricts repeated federal challenges. Under Section twenty-two forty-four, b, a petition that legally counts as second or successive requires prior permission from the court of appeals. That label does not mean every petition filed later in time; a new judgment can change the analysis. You will also hear Rhines, which allows limited stay-and-abeyance: pausing a federal petition while unexhausted claims are presented to the state courts. That requires good cause for failing to exhaust, potential merit, and no intentional delay.

James Randall Rogers v. Warden, Georgia Diagnostic & Classification Prison (No. 24-13080) — U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, argued October 14, 2026.