Exclusive: A death row inmate in texas A man convicted of murdering his 2-year-old daughter in 2002 is scheduled to be executed next week, but his lawyer argues that not only is his client innocent, but no one is responsible for the little girl’s death.
Robert Roberson is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection on October 17. Prosecutors said their daughter, Nikki Curtis, was killed after suffering injuries caused by being violently shaken, a condition known as shaken baby syndrome. Roberson would be the first person in America to be executed on the basis of shaken baby syndrome.
More than 80 Texas state lawmakers, as well as detectives who helped the prosecution, medical experts, parents’ rights groups, human rights groups, best-selling novelist John Grisham and other advocates petitioned the state to pardon Roberson on this conviction. Called to give that he is. Innocent. A group of state MPs also visited him in jail to encourage him.
In an exclusive interview with Fox News Digital, her longtime attorney Gretchen Sween says that shaken baby syndrome has been ruled out and that the real cause of Nikki’s death was revealed to be other health issues such as pneumonia, which is an inflammation of the lungs. There is infection.
Robert Roberson is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection on October 17. (Roberson family)
Roberson, who has maintained his innocence, took his daughter to the hospital in 2002 when he woke up and found her unconscious with blue lips. Doctors at the time were skeptical of Roberson’s claim that her daughter had fallen out of bed while sleeping, with some testifying during the trial that her symptoms were consistent with those of shaken baby syndrome.
“I believe he is innocent for two different reasons,” Sveen told Fox News Digital. “The theory that there was a crime that was used to convict him, then known as the shaken baby syndrome hypothesis, has been completely discredited. There is no longer anyone who believes in that version of the hypothesis. He was able to explain what was presented to his jury as if it were scientific fact, valid.”
“Furthermore, I know from the experts who combed through her daughter’s medical records and examined the evidence that this extremely ill child died from undiagnosed pneumonia, which was damaging her lungs, as well as causing her Even with the extremely dangerous medications given in the last few days of his life,” she continued. “And that doesn’t mean the doctors did it on purpose. It’s just that they didn’t know about pneumonia.”
Doctors looked at Nikki’s symptoms and believed they indicated a cold or flu, she says, and they gave her antihistamines and codeine, drugs that interfere with breathing.
“Pneumonia is a disease of the lungs,” Sween said. “This child of yours is having difficulty breathing when given these medications, and she collapses at night and stops breathing. Now we know what happened to this child, and we know that What the state has said happened nearly 20 years ago is simply not true.”
Many medical professionals, including Stanford University Medical Center, the University of Pennsylvania, and Children’s Minnesota Hospital, now say that doctors are more likely to diagnose shaken baby syndrome even before they take into account a child’s medical history.
Sween said it is “surprising” that he believes there is “overwhelming” and “compelling” evidence that has not yet been examined by the courts.
Texas Court of Criminal Appeals Earlier in 2016, his execution was stopped. However, last year the court allowed the case to be reopened, and a new date was set for Roberson’s death sentence.
On Monday, Roberson’s lawyers asked texas court To seek a stay of his execution and reconsider his innocence based on new scientific evidence. His lawyers also urged the court to reconsider its previous denial of habeas relief based on new evidence, which further shows how an unprecedented state law designed to prevent wrongful convictions did not apply as intended in his case. Was done.
Sween says she will make every possible appeal, including to the US Supreme Court, to save her client’s life.
Texas law allows the governor to grant a one-time, 30-day reprieve from execution. But full clemency requires a majority recommendation of the Pardon and Parole Board, which is appointed by the governor.
Robert Roberson III was convicted of murdering his 2-year-old daughter in 2002. (Texas Department of Criminal Justice via AP)
since GOP Governor Greg Abbott Sworn into office in 2015, he has granted clemency in only one death row case, when he commuted the death sentence of Thomas Whittaker to life in prison an hour before his scheduled execution in 2018. Whitaker was convicted of masterminding a plot that left his mother and brother fatally shot and his father wounded.
But Sween says Roberson’s case is different from previous death penalty cases because it is a “case of actual innocence”, where not only was Roberson wrongly accused, but there was no crime committed.
“If that doesn’t deserve the use of executive power, I don’t know what will,” Sween said.
Abbott’s office and the Pardon and Parole Board did not respond to Fox News Digital’s requests for comment.
Prosecutors say the evidence against Roberson remains solid and the science of shaken baby syndrome has not changed as much as his defense argues.
“It’s not defensible,” Swain said of prosecutors’ claims that the science has not changed. He also notes that the American Academy for Pediatrics, which he says is responsible for shaken baby syndrome becoming widely known, states in its current consensus statement that abuse should not be diagnosed until Until other possible causes of similar conditions have been eliminated.
He also said there was no evidence that shaking caused Nikki’s symptoms and said there were several other possible explanations for the child’s death, citing several studies. He also pointed to studies that show there are no cases where shaking causes internal bleeding or brain injury outside the brain.
Sveen also explained that 2-year-old Nikki was not a baby and that the anatomy of a 2-year-old is different from that of a baby.
Shaken baby syndrome was considered years ago as a possible explanation for the mysterious deaths of infants who suffered from contortion of the head, subdural hemorrhage, swelling in the brain, and sometimes retinal hemorrhages. But Sween says the theory was never tested and yet was treated as established fact.
“We now know that all of these medical conditions can cause similar symptoms,” he said. “So how can you say abuse can be diagnosed when something like pneumonia can cause the same internal condition? So, I respectfully think, the state is absolutely wrong on that.”
Sween also cited a similar case in a different part of Texas that was prosecuted a few years before Roberson. In the Dallas case, which involved the same child abuse expert that was used in Roberson’s case in Palestine, Texas, prosecutors representing the state acknowledged that the science had changed and agreed that the man was a Deserves a new trial.
Roberson’s lawyers have also argued that his conduct was unfairly used against him because he is autistic. He didn’t seem like a distraught parent, which Sveen says may be due to his autism.
“It started when he brought his baby to the hospital,” Sveen said. “She was unconscious. He did not know how to explain her condition. From the beginning her conduct was judged as strange, strange, strange. All such judgments were made which then became part of the trial testimony. Many The witness told the jury that this was a reason to be suspicious of him, his poor behavior, now, of course, none of these doctors or nurses or law enforcement knew that Robert had autism.”
Sveen says that part of autism is that a person often becomes quiet when experiencing emotional distress and does not show the emotions he or she feels inside. He said that was the case for Roberson, who was not diagnosed with autism until 2018.
“And that was their position, and it persisted, but it’s reflected in their records even before this happened to Nikki,” he said. “But he was never properly diagnosed. You know, he was a special needs kid, poor kid, lived on the edge of town, he got some help through Medicaid, put him in special ed classes But he was never given a thorough diagnosis, to find out what was going on.”
Roberson said that support from various people and groups who believe he is innocent has made a difference to him, according to Sween, who added that he has not felt “as human” in a long time, As he told. State MPs met him and expressed solidarity with him.
Texas Senate Bill 1578, enacted in 2021, allows a parent accused of child abuse by a medical professional to seek a second medical opinion from an independent doctor who specializes in the child’s specific medical condition. But Roberson did not benefit from this law, as it came nearly 20 years after his conviction.
Missouri, Texas execute 2 inmates for murders of woman, infant, as more expected in other states
Since GOP Governor Greg Abbott took the oath of office in 2015, he has granted clemency in only one death row case. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki, File)
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Sween also said that Roberson’s case should raise concerns about the death penalty, even among those who support the death penalty, citing “really irrefutable evidence from experts with decades of experience that this child “points to pneumonia in the lungs.”
He said, “If a court can’t hear it, and that’s a reason to kill someone, then I think it becomes hard to be confident that Texas doesn’t risk executing innocents too often.” “And I don’t know of anyone who would take the moral position that it is somehow legitimate to execute people for crimes that did not occur.”
Regarding Roberson’s mindset before the scheduled execution, Sween said he seemed to fluctuate between being scared and being happy that people were concerned about the case.
“Every time he learns that there are new people who care about the case, he gets a childlike excitement and feels hopeful again,” he said. “So it’s kind of a byproduct of his disability. And one of the things that I think helps him is if you tell him, you know, we still have things to try and do , then he becomes optimistic again. So he doesn’t do it.” Don’t get too philosophical about it, he can’t understand why he didn’t go home already.”
