Mark Rogers v. James Dzurenda

FOR PUBLICATION

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS

FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT

MARK ROGERS, No. 19-17158 Petitioner-Appellee, D.C. No. v. 3:02-cv-00342-

GMN-WGC

JAMES DZURENDA; ADAM PAUL

LAXALT; WILLIAM GITTERE,

Warden, OPINION Respondents-Appellants.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of Nevada Gloria M. Navarro, District Judge, Presiding

Argued and Submitted April 19, 2021 Seattle, Washington

Filed February 14, 2022

Before: Ronald M. Gould, Andrew D. Hurwitz, and Mark J. Bennett, Circuit Judges.

Opinion by Judge Gould; Concurrence by Judge Hurwitz; Separate Statement by Judge Hurwitz; Dissent by Judge Bennett SUMMARY *

Habeas Corpus

Affirming the district court’s judgment granting Mark Rogers’s 28 U.S.C. § 2254 habeas corpus petition challenging his murder convictions, the panel held that: (1) Rogers satisfied the Strickland v. Washington two-prong test for ineffective assistance of counsel; and (2) the district court did not abuse its discretion in conditionally granting Rogers’s habeas petition and giving the State of Nevada the option…