Appeal from the United States District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee at Nashville.
No. 3:13-cv-00141—Waverly D. Crenshaw, Jr., District Judge.
Argued: October 26, 2021
Decided and Filed: August 3, 2022
Before: MOORE, WHITE, and STRANCH, Circuit Judges.
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OPINION
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KAREN NELSON MOORE, Circuit Judge. A Tennessee jury convicted William Glenn
Rogers of kidnapping, rape, and murder, and imposed a sentence of death. Rogers appeals from
the denial of his petition for a writ of habeas corpus by the United States District Court for the
Middle District of Tennessee. On appeal, Rogers raises claims related to sufficiency of the
evidence and the state’s limitation of evidence and cross-examination, as well as five groups of
claims of ineffective assistance of counsel at the guilt/innocence, sentencing, and motion-for-anew-trial stages. For the reasons that follow, we affirm the district court’s opinion with respect
to the guilt/innocence phase of trial. We conclude, however, that Rogers’s counsel rendered
ineffective assistance at the sentencing phase that makes us doubt whether this phase of trial
produced a fair result. We further hold that, in Tennessee, ineffective assistance of post-conviction counsel can establish cause to excuse a defendant’s procedural default of a substantial
claim of ineffective assistance at the motion-for-a-new-trial stage. Accordingly, we AFFIRM in
part, REVERSE in part, VACATE in part, and REMAND for further proceedings consistent
with this opinion.
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