Florida set to execute suspected serial killer once eyed for possible link to the OJ Simpson case

STARKE Fla AP A suspected serial killer once scrutinized for a workable link to the O J Simpson incident that riveted the nation in the mid- s is scheduled to be executed Thursday in Florida for the murder of a woman in a Tampa motel room Glen Rogers is set to receive a lethal injection at Florida State Prison near Starke barring a last-day reprieve He was convicted in Florida of the murder of Tina Marie Cribbs a -year-old mother of two he had met at a bar The U S Supreme Court denied Rogers final appeals on Wednesday without comment Rogers would be the fifth inmate put to death in Florida this year As of May people have been executed this year in the U S in eight states according to the Death Penalty Information Center s website That compares with people in all of the center revealed He also drew a separate death sentence in California for the strangulation killing of Sandra Gallagher a mother of three whom he had met at a bar in Van Nuys in that state That killing came weeks before the Cribbs murder Rogers was stopped after a highway chase in Kentucky while driving Cribbs car soon after her death Rogers was named as a suspect but never convicted in several other slayings around the country once telling police he had killed about people He later recanted that announcement but had been the subject of documentaries including one from called My Brother the Serial Killer that featured his brother Clay and a criminal profiler who had corresponded extensively with Rogers The documentary raised questions about whether Rogers could have been responsible for the stabbing deaths of Simpson s ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ron Goldman During a murder trial that drew intense media attention the former football star and celebrity Simpson was acquitted of all charges Los Angeles police and prosecutors subsequently mentioned after the documentary s release that they didn t think Rogers had any involvement in the Simpson and Goldman killings We know who killed Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman We have no reason to believe that Mr Rogers was involved the Los Angeles Police Department stated in a comment at the time Simpson had inevitably professed innocence but was later exposed liable for the deaths in a separate civil incident and then served nine years in prison on unrelated charges The -year-old Simpson died in April after battling cancer Rogers originally from Hamilton Ohio has also been labeled the Casanova Killer or Cross Country Killer in various media reports Several of his alleged and proven female sufferers had similar characteristics ages in their s a petite frame and red hair Rogers lawyers have filed several appeals with state and federal courts none fruitful One argument was that newly enacted state regulation authorizing the death penalty for trafficking in young children makes clear the abuse he suffered as a child is now taken seriously and should end in a life prison sentence for Rogers That argument was rejected Florida uses a three-drug cocktail for its lethal injection a sedative a paralytic and a drug that stops the heart according to the Corrections Department Anthony Wainwright is the next Florida inmate scheduled for execution on June under a death warrant signed by Republican Gov Ron DeSantis Wainwright was convicted of kidnapping a woman from a supermarket parking lot in Lake City in and raping and killing her Source