a bipartisan group Texas lawmaker On Tuesday, Republican Governor Greg Abbott and the state’s Pardon and Parole Board were called upon to stop the execution of a man who was convicted of killing his two-year-old daughter in 2002.
Robert Roberson is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection on October 17. Prosecutors claimed his daughter, Nikki Curtis, was killed after suffering injuries from being violently shaken.
The petition, filed by 84 lawmakers in the 150-member state House as well as medical experts, death penalty attorneys, a former detective on the case and bestselling novelist John Grisham, argues that the case is based on flawed scientific evidence, reflecting broad bipartisan support in the Lone Star state against a planned execution. The Associated Press,
“There is a strong majority in the Texas House, a bipartisan majority, that has serious doubts about the execution of Robert Roberson,” Democrat Rep. Joe Moody said at a press conference at the state Capitol. “This is one of those issues that is a matter of life and death, and our political ideology does not come into play here.”
Robert Roberson III is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection on Oct. 17. (Texas Department of Criminal Justice, via AP)
Texas law allows the governor to grant a one-time, 30-day reprieve from a death sentence. But a full pardon requires the recommendation of a majority of the Pardon and Parole Board, which is appointed by the governor.
Since Abbott took office in 2015, he has granted clemency in only one case. death penalty caseWhen he commuted Thomas Whitaker’s death sentence to life imprisonment an hour before his scheduled execution in 2018. Whitaker was convicted of arranging a conspiracy in which his mother and brother were fatally shot and his father was wounded.
The lawmakers’ petition argues that Roberson’s conviction was based on faulty scientific evidence and emphasizes that experts have largely rejected allegations that Nikki’s symptoms were consistent with shaken baby syndrome.
“Nikki’s death … was not a crime — unless the crime is being unable to explain complex medical issues to parents that even trained medical professionals failed to understand at the time,” the petition reads. “We know that Nikki’s lungs were severely infected and struggling for oxygen for several days or weeks before she collapsed.”
Texas Rep. Joe Moody, D-El Paso, speaks at a House Investigative Committee meeting at the state Capitol on June 9, 2022 in Austin, Texas. (AP)
Roberson, who has maintained his innocence, took his daughter to the hospital in 2002 after he woke up to find her unconscious and with a blue tint to her lips. Doctors at the time were skeptical of Roberson’s claim that his daughter had fallen out of bed while sleeping, with some testifying at trial that her symptoms were consistent with those of shaken baby syndrome.
Many medical professionals now say that doctors diagnose shaken baby syndrome too quickly, without taking into account the child’s medical history.
Medical experts who signed the petition include specialists from Stanford University Medical Center, the University of Pennsylvania and Children’s Minnesota Hospital.
Roberson’s lawyers said that because he is autistic, his behavior was unfairly used against him, and that doctors failed to rule out other medical explanations for the infant’s symptoms, including pneumonia.
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Texas Governor Greg Abbott makes an announcement on the future of the space industry in Texas at NASA’s Johnson Space Center on March 26, 2024 in Houston, Texas. ((Photo: SUZANNE CORDEARO/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES))
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The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals previously stayed his execution in 2016. However, last year the court allowed the case to resume, and a new date for Roberson’s death was set.
Prosecutors say the evidence against Roberson is strong and that the science of shaken baby syndrome hasn’t changed as much as the defense has argued.
Brian Wharton, former chief of detectives Palestine, TexasThose who had assisted in Roberson’s prosecution signed a petition and publicly demanded that the state put a stay on the death penalty.
“Given everything I know now, I am absolutely confident that Robert is innocent,” Wharton said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
