By Jim Saunders ©2025 The News Service of Florida
RAIFORD — In Florida’s fifth execution this year, Glen Rogers was put to death by lethal injection Thursday evening in the 1995 murder of a woman in a Tampa motel room.
Rogers, 62, was pronounced dead at 6:16 p.m., after making a last statement that included expressing love for his family members and saying he knew a lot of questions remained. He said questions “will be answered” without giving further explanation.
Rogers also said, “President Trump, keep making America great.”
The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday rejected a final attempt by Rogers’ attorneys to halt the execution.
Gov. Ron DeSantis on April 15 signed a death warrant for Rogers, who was convicted in the November 1995 stabbing death of Tina Marie Cribbs after they met at a bar.
Rogers stole Cribbs’ car and was later arrested in Kentucky after leading police on a high-speed chase, according to a court document. He also was convicted of murdering a woman in California and was a suspect in murders in Louisiana and Mississippi. Rogers was sentenced to death in the Florida murder in 1997.
Randy and Amy Roberson, children of the woman killed in Louisiana, Andy Jiles Sutton, released a statement after the execution that said Rogers “got what he deserves.”
“He certainly did not deserve to live the past 28 years,” the statement said.
A Florida Supreme Court opinion last week denying a Rogers appeal included a graphic description of the stabbing of Cribbs, whose body was found by a cleaner in the motel room bathtub.
“Cribbs had been stabbed once in the chest and once in the buttocks. The state’s forensic pathologist later testified that the stab wounds were L-shaped wounds, indicating that the perpetrator had inserted a very long knife, then after an interval, twisted the instrument to a perfect 90-degree angle, then pulled it out,” the opinion said. “These stab wounds were both deliberate and fatal, slicing through major arteries that caused Cribbs to bleed out. She was stabbed with her clothing on and was conscious.”
Rogers woke at 3:45 a.m. Thursday and ate a final meal of pizza, chocolate cake and soda, Florida Department of Corrections spokesman Ted Veerman said. Rogers was visited by his wife.
The execution started shortly after 6 p.m., with 22 witnesses, in addition to reporters and Department of Corrections officials, watching through a window. Rogers’ chest could be seen palpitating at 6:03 p.m. — a common occurrence in executions — but he appeared motionless by 6:06 p.m.
DeSantis and the state have increased the pace of executions this year, after one inmate was executed in 2024 and six were executed in 2023. The state did not carry out executions in 2020, 2021 and 2022.
The state this year executed Jeffrey Hutchinson on May 1; Michael Tanzi on April 8; Edward James on March 20; and James Ford on Feb. 13. DeSantis last week also signed a death warrant for Anthony Wainwright, who was convicted of kidnapping a woman in 1994 from a Winn-Dixie supermarket parking lot in Lake City and raping and murdering her in rural Hamilton County. Wainwright is scheduled to be executed June 10.
Death warrants and other documents have been posted on the Florida Supreme Court website, with little explanation from DeSantis. Veerman said the Department of Corrections has not had any operational issues carrying out the executions.
But the Florida Conference of Catholic Bishops has repeatedly asked DeSantis to spare the condemned killers, including Rogers.
In a letter released last week, Michael Sheedy, the conference’s executive director, described the murders of Cribbs and the victim in California as “terrible crimes, and we mourn the tragic deaths of the victims and pray for the repose of their souls.”
But the letter urged DeSantis to commute Rogers’ sentence to life in prison.
“We appeal to you that it is possible both to achieve the purposes of punishment and to exercise mercy,” Sheedy wrote. “We can entrust the final judgment of every individual to God.”
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