Gregersen, Mark J.

Charles M. Rogers was born in Monticello, Utah in 1947. He moved to the Kansas City area with his family as a child. Mr. Rogers graduated from North Kansas City High School in 1965. He attended Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota from 1965 until 1968. From 1968 until 1970, Mr. Rogers served in the United States Army, receiving an Honorable Discharge. Mr. Rogers graduated from the University of Missouri-Kansas City in 1973, with a B.A. in philosophy. Mr. Rogers graduated, with distinction, from the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law in 1976. While in law school, Mr. Rogers was Associate Editor of the UMKC Law Review. Upon graduation, Mr. Rogers became an Assistant Public Defender in Jackson County, Missouri. He served as First Assistant Jackson County Public Defender for several years. For the last five years of his seventeen-year public defender career, Mr. Rogers was a Regional Defender for Region Three, and supervised five public defender offices providing service to thirteen counties in western and southwestern Missouri. While a public defender, Mr. Rogers tried well over one hundred felony jury trials. In 1994, Mr. Rogers left the public defender system to work for the Missouri Capital Punishment Resource Center, representing Missouri death row inmates in federal habeas corpus proceedings and some state court proceedings. When Congress eliminated funding for Resource Centers nationwide in 1995, Mr. Rogers joined Wyrsch Hobbs Mirakian & Lee (then known as Wyrsch Atwell Mirakian Lee & Hobbs) as an associate. Mr. Rogers became a shareholder in the firm in 1997. Mr. Rogers is licensed to practice before the United States Supreme Court, the United States Courts of Appeals for the Eighth and Ninth Circuits and the United States District Courts for the Western District of Missouri and the District of Kansas. He has also appeared pro hac vice before the United States District Courts for the Eastern District of Missouri, Northern District of Iowa and Northern District of California. Mr. Rogers has successfully represented clients facing the death penalty before the Western District of Missouri, Northern District of Iowa and the District of Kansas, as well as before state courts in both Missouri and Kansas. He was involved in the first two death penalty cases tried in federal court in the Western District of Missouri since the reenactment of the federal death penalty. No client represented by Mr. Rogers at trial has ever received the death penalty. Mr. Rogers' practice primarily involves the defense of individuals and corporations accused of criminal offenses in state or federal court, the appeal of criminal cases, habeas corpus and other post-conviction representation. Mr. Rogers is a member of the American Bar Association, the Missouri Bar, the Kansas City Metropolitan Bar Association (Criminal Law Committee co-chair), the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and the Missouri Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (First Vice President since 1999, Board of Directors since 1988).

Mr. Rogers is married to the Honorable Christine Sill-Rogers, Judge of Division 31 of the Jackson County Circuit Court. Their son Christopher is an employee of Sprint; their daughter Fiona is a student at the University of Missouri. Mr. Rogers enjoys cycling, cooking, reading and oenology.