The Texas Supreme Court late Thursday upheld a temporary restraining order that stayed the execution of Robert Roberson hours after it was set to take place. Had the execution gone forward, Roberson would have been the first person in the U.S. executed for “shaken baby syndrome,” a medical diagnosis that has since been discredited by evidence-based science.
Roberson was convicted of capital murder in the 2002 death of his 2-year-old daughter Nikki in Palestine, Texas and has spent over 20 years on death row.
Roberson’s chronically ill daughter was sick with a high fever and undiagnosed pneumonia and suffered a short fall from bed. Hospital staff did not know Roberson was autistic and judged his response to his daughter’s grave condition as lacking emotion. He was prosecuted, convicted and sentenced to death.
A hearing was held Oct. 15 in Anderson County on the defense’s motion to vacate the unlawful execution warrant but was denied.
Thursday’s stay was an 11th-hour victory for Roberson and for a bipartisan group of state lawmakers who are opposed to the execution and held a daylong hearing Wednesday that concluded with the issuance of a subpoena for Roberson to testify before the Texas House Committee on Criminal Jurisprudence Monday.
Wednesday’s hearing focused on the application of the state’s “junk science” law to capital punishment cases, specifically zeroing in on Roberson’s case as an example. Passed in 2013, the “junk science” law allows people to challenge convictions if new science undercuts the integrity of their initial trial.
“The vast team fighting for Robert Roberson – people all across Texas, the country, and the world – are elated tonight that a contingent of brave, bipartisan Texas lawmakers chose to dig deep into the facts of Robert’s case that no court had yet considered and recognized that his life was worth fighting for,” Gretchen Sween, Roberson’s attorney, said in a statement. “He lives to fight another day and hopes that his experience can help improve the integrity of our criminal legal system.”
According to the National Registry of Exonerations, which tracks sentences for wrongful convictions, since 1992, at least 34 defendants have been exonerated in connection with allegations of shaken baby syndrome.
Monday’s noon hearing will be livestreamed on the House website at https://house.texas.gov/videos.
