Hearing set to challenge 1985 death penalty case
♦ James Randall Rogers was convicted of killing his neighbor.
The second hearing involving a challenge to evidence used to convict a Floyd County man of murder in 1985 will go before Floyd County Superior Court Judge Bryan Johnson Monday.
The attorneys for James Randall Rogers are attempting to prove that flawed evidence examination practices led to his conviction for the rape and killing of his 75-year-old neighbor Grace Perry.
Fingerprint evidence is expected to largely be the subject of Monday’s hearing, which is scheduled to start at 1 p.m.
In a May hearing, Rogers’ legal team presented testimony they say debunks several pieces of evidence — such as bite marks — used to convict him and sentence him to death. Scientific peer reviews of bite mark evidence by leaders in the field has led professional organizations to reject the identification practice.
Rogers’ attorneys argue that prosecutors in the 1985 trial leaned heavily on testimony by Dr. Richard Souviron, who stated that bite marks left on Rogers’ arm were definitively made by the victim.
In 2020, Souviron recanted that testimony, saying it was based on flawed science.
“My testimony in this case would be completely and qualitatively different today,” Souviron wrote in a statement submitted to the court. He continued, writing that under current standards set by the American Board of Forensic Odontology, his 1985 testimony would be inconclusive at best. During that May hearing, one of Rogers’ attorneys, Mark Loudon-brown from the Southern Center for Human Rights, told Judge Johnson they also intend to attack fingerprint evidence submitted in the case. In a supplemental motion filed prior to the hearing, Rogers’ attorneys stated a reexamination of a partial fingerprint proves that it didn’t belong to Rogers.