Texas appeals court again pauses execution of Robert Roberson in shaken baby case

Audio By Carbonatix

HOUSTON (AP) — Texas’ top criminal court on Thursday again paused the execution of Robert Roberson, just days before he was set to become the first person in the U.S. put to death for a murder conviction tied to a diagnosis of shaken baby syndrome.

This was the third execution date that Roberson’s lawyers have been able to stay since 2016, including one scheduled nearly a year ago, due to an unprecedented intervention from a bipartisan group of Texas lawmakers who believe he is innocent.

The latest execution stay was granted by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. Roberson had been scheduled to receive a lethal injection on Oct. 16 for the death of his 2-year-old daughter Nikki Curtis.

The court granted the stay based on Texas’ 2013 junk science law, which allows a person convicted of a crime to seek relief if the evidence used against them is no longer credible. It cited its October 2024 ruling that overturned the conviction of another man, Andrew Roark, in another shaken baby case in Dallas. Roberson's lawyers argue that the two cases are indistinguishable.

The appeals court sent Roberson's case back to his trial court in East Texas for review.

“We are relieved and grateful that members of the (appeals court) appreciate the parallels between Andrew Roark’s case and Robert Roberson’s,” Gretchen Sween, one of Roberson's lawyers, said in a statement. “Robert adored Nikki, whose death was a tragedy, a horror compounded by Robert’s wrongful conviction that devastated his whole family. We are confident that an objective review of the science and medical evidence will show there was no crime.”

The Texas Attorney General's Office, which is seeking Roberson's execution, did not immediately reply to an email requesting comment.

Since his first execution date more than nine years ago, Roberson’s lawyers have filed multiple petitions with state and federal appeals courts, as well as with the U.S. Supreme Court, to stop his execution. They have also asked the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles and Gov. Greg Abbott to intervene, as part of their efforts to secure Roberson a new trial.

Prosecutors at Roberson’s 2003 trial argued that he hit Nikki and violently shook her, causing severe head trauma. They said she died from injuries related to shaken baby syndrome.

Roberson has long proclaimed his innocence, telling The Associated Press in an interview last week from death row in Livingston, Texas, that he never abused his daughter.

“I never shook her or hit her,” he said.

The diagnosis of shaken baby syndrome refers to a serious brain injury caused when a child’s head is hurt through shaking or some other violent impact, like being slammed against a wall or thrown on the floor.

Roberson's lawyers and some medical experts say his daughter died not from abuse but from complications related to pneumonia. They say his conviction was based on flawed and now outdated scientific evidence.

In their latest appeal, Roberson’s lawyers included what they say are new legal and scientific developments and expert analyses that show Nikki’s death was caused by illness and accident, not by abuse.

Roberson’s lawyers also included a joint statement from 10 independent pathologists who said the medical examiner’s autopsy report, which concluded Nikki died from blunt force head injuries, was “not reliable.”

His attorneys also argue new evidence shows judicial misconduct in Roberson’s case. They allege the judge who presided over Roberson’s trial didn't disclose he also authorized the circumvention of Roberson’s parental rights and allowed Nikki’s grandparents to remove her from life support.

The office of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, as well as some medical experts and other family members of Nikki, maintain the child died because of abuse and that Roberson had a history of hitting her.

In a Sept. 26 op-ed in The Dallas Morning News, three pediatricians, including two with the Yale School of Medicine, said they reviewed the case and “are convinced that Nikki was a victim of child abuse.”

Shaken baby syndrome has come under scrutiny in recent years; some lawyers and medical experts say the diagnosis has wrongly sent people to prison. Prosecutors and medical societies say it remains valid.

Roberson’s supporters include liberal and ultraconservative lawmakers, Texas GOP megadonor and conservative activist Doug Deason, bestselling author John Grisham, and Brian Wharton, the former police detective who helped put together the case against him.

GOP state Rep. Brian Harrison, one of the more conservative lawmakers in the Texas Legislature, praised the execution stay.

“These brave judges took their duty to seek justice seriously, even in the face of tremendous — and dishonest — political pressure to execute a potentially innocent person, who has never been given a fair trial,” Harrison said in a statement.

___

Follow Juan A. Lozano: https://x.com/juanlozano70