Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

Court overturns death penalty for Pershing County killer

CARSON CITY — A federal appeals court has ruled that a Pershing County killer was wrongly sentenced to death because of a flawed jury instruction during the penalty hearing.

The U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals granted a writ of habeas corpus in favor Mark Rogers, who killed three people in December 1980. This is the seventh appeal he has filed through the state and federal court system.

After his conviction in 1981, the jury found the murders involved depravity of mind as an aggravating circumstances that justified the death penalty.

The appeals court Friday upheld Senior District Judge Edward Reed Jr.'s decision that the instruction was unconstitutionally vague. It ordered a new penalty hearing or to impose a non-death penalty sentence.

It’s been nearly 35 years since the killing of Emery and Mary Strode and daughter Meriam Strode in the couple’s home in a remote part of Pershing County. Emery was shot three times and stabbed twice. Mary was shot once and stabbed once. Meriam was tied up with an electric cord and shot once in the back.

The state district court and the Nevada Supreme Court each twice rejected the appeals of Rogers.

A month after the murders, Rogers was arrested in Florida. At trial Rogers maintained he was mentally ill including bouts of psychotic paranoid delusions schizophrenia and psychosis.

The appeals court said the U.S. Supreme Court ruled one year before the Pershing County trial that the depravity of mind instruction was vague and should not be given to the jury.

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