CNN
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The scheduled execution of Texas death row inmate Robert Roberson for the murder of his 2-year-old daughter was suspended after the Texas Supreme Court ordered a partial stay of execution late Thursday night, according to court documents. Canceled.
The 11-hour stay came a little more than an hour before Roberson’s death warrant was set to expire, and ensued in a stunning legal battle as the state and Roberson’s advocates battled over his fate. .
The Supreme Court’s decision came quickly after a divided Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, in a late Thursday ruling, vacated a lower court’s order halting his execution.
But Roberson’s future remains uncertain. A court order allowed his death warrant to expire at midnight Thursday, but his legal battle is still ongoing and he is expected to testify before lawmakers next week, or sooner if ordered by the court. A new execution date may be set after the
The delay in Roberson’s execution began Wednesday when a group of lawmakers on the Texas Criminal Jurisprudence Commission passed a subpoena for Roberson to review the legality of his conviction.
Roberson’s attorney, Gretchen Sween, said her client “hopes that his experience will help improve the health of our nation’s criminal legal system.”
“The large team fighting for Robert Roberson, the people of Texas, across the country, and around the world, is proud to announce tonight that a courageous, bipartisan group of Texas legislators will be filing Robert Roberson’s lawsuit, which has not yet been considered by any court. “I’m overjoyed that I chose to dig deeper into the facts of my life and realize that my life is worth fighting for,” Sween said.
Roberson’s conviction was based on claims that his daughter, Nikki Curtis, died of shaken baby syndrome, a diagnosis that lawyers have since argued has been discredited.
Roberson’s lawyers have been fighting against his execution for years, but Roberson’s fate on Thursday was ultimately contested in a series of last-ditch efforts.
Within days, multiple appeals were rejected in state courts, the Texas Board of Pardons rejected his request for clemency, and the U.S. Supreme Court declined to intervene.
That leaves the House committee’s request for an unusual subpoena and temporary restraining order, which was granted early Thursday.
But a state appellate court later sided with the state and reversed the injunction Thursday night, with four dissenting judges calling the circumstances of the case “unprecedented” and calling the law at issue “unprecedented.” called for further research into claims.
Following the appeals court’s decision, Roberson’s advocacy committee asked the Texas Supreme Court to issue an injunction against the Texas Department of Criminal Justice and the Texas Department of Criminal Justice Division of Correctional Facilities.
In a decision Thursday night, the Texas Supreme Court suspended the execution, but the injunction request is still pending.
The Supreme Court said the state cannot stop the state from complying with the subpoenas issued by Texas lawmakers on Wednesday, “including the execution of Mr. Roberson, pending further order of this court.”
In an opinion concurring with the granting of the restraining order, Texas Supreme Court Justice Evan Young also said that the district court did not abuse its discretion in granting the restraining order.
State lawmakers celebrated the court’s decision Thursday.
“For more than 20 years, Robert Roberson has spent 23.5 hours a day in a cell the size of most Texans’ closets, yearning and striving to be heard. The divisional court may have let him down, but the Texas House of Representatives did not,” state Reps. Joe Moody and Jeff Leach said in a joint statement.
“We look forward to welcoming Robert to the Texas Capitol and joining 31 million Texans in giving him, and the opportunity to finally hear the truth,” the lawmakers added.
CNN has reached out to the offices of Texas Governor Greg Abbott and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton for comment on the court’s decision.
Roberson arrived Thursday afternoon at the Huntsville police station where he was scheduled to be executed, the Department of Criminal Justice confirmed to CNN.
Mr. Roberson should have been the first person to be executed in the United States for a conviction based on allegations of shaken baby syndrome, a misdiagnosis in Mr. Roberson’s case, which his lawyers argue has been discredited. claims.
Pediatricians of child abuse have fiercely defended the validity of their diagnosis, but Mr. Roberson’s defenders have argued that Mr. Roberson’s daughter did not die as a result of murder and that Mr. Roberson, who was sickly, was now unsuitable. It said the court had not yet considered sufficient evidence that the deaths were caused by a variety of causes, including possible illnesses and drugs. child.
Roberson’s attorneys argued that his due process rights were violated when the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals refused to consider additional evidence that the inmate claimed would support his claim of innocence.
Mr. Roberson’s claim of innocence underscores the inherent risk of the death penalty: a potentially innocent person can be put to death. Since 1973, at least 200 people, including 18 in Texas, have been acquitted after being convicted and sentenced to death, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.
At the time of her death, Nikki was suffering from double pneumonia that had progressed to sepsis and was prescribed two medications that are now considered inappropriate for children, which further hindered her ability to breathe. they say. Additionally, the night before Roberson took her to the emergency room in Palestine, Texas, she had fallen out of bed and was particularly vulnerable given her illness, Roberson’s attorney said, adding that all of these factors He pointed out that this was an explanation for her condition.
They argue that other factors also contributed to his conviction. The inmate’s lawyers claim that the doctors who treated Nikki “assumed” abuse based on her symptoms and general belief at the time of her death, without examining her recent medical history. And his behavior in the emergency room, seen by doctors, nurses and police as indifferent and believed to be a sign of guilt, was actually a manifestation of an autism spectrum disorder. It wasn’t diagnosed until 2018.
“I told my wife last week that I was embarrassed. I was so focused on finding the criminal and convicting someone that I didn’t meet Robert. I couldn’t hear him,” Nikki said. Brian Wharton, the retired detective who oversaw the investigation into his death, told state lawmakers Wednesday during a hearing featuring the case.
“He’s innocent and we’re on the verge of killing him for something he didn’t do,” Wharton previously said.
On Thursday night, Wharton said he was relieved to hear the court’s decision.
“His wife started crying and everyone else just took a deep breath because we all know he’s innocent. We’ve been fighting this for a while. I’ve tried to get a fair hearing,” Wharton told CNN.
Wharton is one of the many supporters of Roberson. More than 30 scientists and medical experts, a bipartisan group of more than 80 Texas state legislators, autism advocacy groups, author John Grisham and others all agree with the doctors cited by the prisoners’ lawyers. , asking for mercy. It is a passionate movement that has expressed strong opposition to the death penalty in recent days.
Supporters in Congress include members of the Texas Criminal Law Commission, which will hold a hearing Wednesday on Roberson’s case and voice questions surrounding the shaken baby syndrome diagnosis. He convened Mr. Wharton, Mr. Sween, and others who had raised high standards.
The hearing was ostensibly about Texas Statute 11.073, a state law commonly referred to as a “junk science warrant,” which allows a defendant to be convicted if no new scientific evidence is available at the time of trial. It was intended to provide a means of dissent.
The committee passed a subpoena for Roberson on Wednesday, asking in a motion to “provide all relevant testimony and information regarding the committee’s investigation.” The committee is not completely convinced that Roberson’s execution will be delayed, but is hopeful, a person familiar with the case told CNN.
An appeals court last week ordered a new trial for a man sentenced to 35 years in prison for injury to a child in a case also based on shaken baby syndrome arguments.
Mr. Roberson’s supporters believe he too should benefit from the law, and the commission said in a preliminary letter to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals that the law is “exactly what this case is.” “It is aimed at the incident.”
The committee called for a stay of execution in the Roberson case, but Congress is considering changes in the next session. But the Court of Appeals on Wednesday rejected Roberson’s appeal, dismissing it on procedural grounds “without considering the merits of the claims raised.”
Republican Rep. Leach, a member of the committee, expressed hope that the governor and parole board would listen to the hearing. What you should do now is press the pause button and make sure it is forced. ”
Mr. Roberson’s lawyers do not dispute that infants can and do die from being shaken. However, they noted that more benign explanations, including illness, could mimic the symptoms of tremors, and that those alternative explanations were ruled out before medical professionals could confidently testify that the cause of death was abuse. argues that it should.
Shaken baby syndrome is recognized as a valid diagnosis by the American Academy of Pediatrics and supported by child abuse pediatricians who spoke to CNN. This condition was first reported in the mid-1970s and has been considered a type of “abusive head injury” for the past 15 years or so. This is a broader term used to reflect actions other than shaking, such as a blow to the head of a child.
Child abuse pediatricians say criminal defense attorneys also oversimplify the way doctors diagnose abusive head injuries, pointing out that many factors are taken into consideration when making a diagnosis.
Still, the diagnosis is the focus of debate in courtrooms across the country. Since 1992, courts in at least 17 states and the U.S. military have acquitted 32 people convicted in shaken baby syndrome cases, according to the National Registry of Exonerations.
Child abuse pediatricians like Dr. Antoinette Lasky, chair of the American Academy of Pediatrics’ Council on Child Abuse and Neglect, dispute these statistics. She cited a 2021 paper showing that only 3% of all shaken baby syndrome convictions from 2008 to 2018 were overturned, and only 1% were overturned by medical evidence. pointed out. However, the thoroughness of that research has been questioned.
“I don’t know what to say about the legal arguments,” Lasky told CNN about the courtroom debate (she did not discuss Roberson’s case). “This is real. It affects kids, it affects families…I want to help them. I don’t want to diagnose it as abuse. This is a bad day.”
CNN’s Ashley R. Williams contributed to this report.
