CNN
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Calls for the life of Texas death row inmate Robert Roberson to be spared are growing, with just over a day left until the state plans to execute him for the murder of his 2-year-old daughter. Defenders say the crime never happened.
Roberson’s supporters continue to fight to save his life, but their efforts to prevent his execution have so far been rebuffed. On Wednesday, the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles denied a pardon for Roberson’s case, despite a request by Roberson’s lawyers to either commute his death sentence or give him 180 days to allow time for an appeal. rejected the recommendation. argued in court.
Mr. Roberson’s lawyers say that if Mr. Roberson is put to death by lethal injection Thursday night, his conviction would be based on allegations of shaken baby syndrome, a misdiagnosis in Mr. Roberson’s case. He claims to be the first person in the United States to do so. He says he has lost trust.
Without a parole board recommendation, Republican Gov. Greg Abbott is limited to granting a one-time 30-day reprieve.
“We ask Governor Abbott to grant 30 days to allow the lawsuit to continue and demonstrate Robert Roberson’s two-year history of chronic illness,” Gretchen Sween, Roberson’s attorney, said Wednesday. “We want the overwhelming new medical and scientific evidence to be heard in court.” -My eldest daughter Nikki died of natural and accidental causes, not abuse. ”
Child abuse pediatricians remain adamant about the validity of the shaken baby syndrome diagnosis, but Roberson’s lawyers say her daughter Nikki Curtis did not die from child abuse. He says there is sufficient evidence.
At the time of her death, she had double pneumonia that had progressed to sepsis, and had been prescribed two medications that are now considered inappropriate for children, and which affected her ability to breathe. They claim, citing medical experts, that it would have further hindered the In addition, she had fallen out of bed and was in a particularly fragile state, Roberson’s attorney said.
Other factors also contributed to his conviction, they argue. The inmate’s lawyers argued that the doctors who treated Nikki “assumed” abuse based on her symptoms and general belief at the time of her death, without investigating Nikki’s recent medical history. His behavior in the emergency room was viewed by doctors, nurses, and police as indifferent and believed to be a sign of guilt, but was actually a manifestation of autism spectrum disorder and was diagnosed in 2018. was not diagnosed until then.
“From very early on, all the focus was on Robert to the exclusion of other possibilities,” said the former Palestine, Texas, detective who led an investigation into Nikki’s death that he now believes was too narrowly focused. Brian Wharton said. Since then, he has joined Roberson’s supporters in fighting to save lives.
Mr. Roberson’s claim of innocence underscores the inherent risk of the death penalty, which allows potentially innocent people to be put to death. According to the Death Penalty Information Center, at least 200 people have been convicted and sentenced to death since 1973, including 18 in Texas, who have been acquitted.
The Court of Appeal on Wednesday dismissed the inmates’ latest appeal. The same court last week ordered a new trial for a man who was sentenced to 35 years in prison for injury to a child in a case also based on an altercation involving a shaken baby.
Roberson’s lawyers argued that Roberson’s due process rights were violated by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals’ refusal to consider additional evidence the inmate claims would support his claim of innocence, and the U.S. Supreme Court filed a motion for a stay of execution.
Meanwhile, many of Mr. Roberson’s supporters have taken their own steps to draw attention to his case in hopes of putting pressure on the state to halt the execution.
The Texas Board of Criminal Jurisprudence held a hearing on Wednesday to discuss testimony “related to the death penalty” and the Texas law that opens the door for people to challenge their convictions if convicted (commonly known as “junk science warrants”). ”) will be heard. New scientific evidence not available at the time of their trial.
Roberson’s name is not listed in the notice of public hearing, but his supporters say he should benefit from the law and are members of the committee from Collins County. Republican Rep. Jeff Leach told reporters Tuesday that the hearing “is going to light up the world.” It highlighted Roberson’s lawsuit “for all 31 million Texans to hear, see and see.”
“We’re hopeful that by Thursday evening we’ll be able to press the pause button on this case,” Leach said. Leach supports the death penalty, but has emerged as a key critic of its use in cases involving wrongful convictions.
The committee, made up of both Republicans and Democrats, also asked the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals to halt the execution, citing “junk science” laws. Committee members said in a prepared letter to the court that they hope Roberson will be granted a suspended sentence while lawmakers consider changes to the “junk science” law. .
“There is no dispute that the medical evidence presented at Mr. Roberson’s 2003 trial is inconsistent with modern scientific principles,” the lawmakers wrote.
“We believe it would be a stain on the conscience of Texas for the execution to proceed while efforts are being made to correct the deficiencies in how the law was applied to this case.”
A bipartisan group of more than 80 Texas state legislators supports Roberson’s lawsuit and his request for clemency. Rep. Joe Moody, chairman of the Criminal Jurisprudence Committee, said on the X show last week that the state needs to “put the brakes on before this stains Texas justice for generations.” .
Author John Grisham, director of the Innocence Project, which supports Roberson’s claims, also called for mercy in a Washington Post op-ed on Tuesday.
“Evidence has been collected and made available to Texas authorities, but no one with the power to prevent Roberson’s execution is paying attention,” Grisham wrote. “The courts closed all doors based on technicalities and even the pleas of politicians were ignored.”
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.
“The bottom line is simply that (Nikki) was the victim of an abusive head injury,” Dr. Sandeep Narang, a child abuse pediatrician and attorney, told Roberson’s defense attorney during trial testimony in the case. told CNN after saying he had been asked to review the matter.
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.
“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. Today is a bad day.”
But last week, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals ordered a new trial for a man sentenced to 35 years in prison for injury to a child in a case also based on the Shaken Baby Syndrome argument. “Scientific knowledge about SBS is evolving,” the court said in its argument.
CNN’s Ed Lavandera, Ashley Killough, John Fritze and Sandee Lamotte contributed to this report.
