Texas Supreme Court halts execution of Robert Roberson in shaken baby case after lawmakers’ last-minute appeal
The Texas Supreme Court halted Thursday night’s scheduled execution of a man who would have become the first person in the US put to death for a murder con🔥viction tied to a diꦡagnosis of shaken baby syndrome.
Supporters of Robert Roberson, who was convicted of killing his 2-year-old daughter in 2002, tu𒀰rned to t💛he Texas high court, which normally does not get involved in criminal cases, after both the US Supreme Court and the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, the state’s highest criminal court, earlier in the day rejected appeals to halt his lethal injection.
Roberson’s supporters include a coalition of Republicans and Democrats who say Roberson is innoceཧnt♎ and was convicted on faulty scientific evidence.
Hours after the original execution time of 6 p.m. local time had passed in Texas, Roberson had remained in a prison holding cell a few feet from the death cha🔴mber at the♎ Walls Unit in Hunstville.
Gov. Greg Abbott had authority to delay Roberson’s punishment for 30 days. Abbott has halted only one imminent execution in nearly a decade as governor and has🌜 not spoken publicly about the case.
The Texas appeals court ruling was one of a flurry of legal decisions in the hours before Roberson’s scheduled l🅷ethal injection⛄.
At the same time a state judge in Austin was issuin♐g a temporary restraining order, the US Supreme Court refused to halt the execution, although Justice Sonia Sotomayor — in a 10-page statement about the case — urged🐭 Abbott to grant a 30-day delay.
The state’s legal fight to get the execution carried o💟ut had faced a midnight CDT deadline when the death warrant authorizing Roberson’s execution would expire.
It was likely, however, the case would need to be resolved 🐈well before that since officials must conduct procedures such as attaching intravenous needles and allow time for an injection to take effe๊ct and a physician to pronounce him dead.
Earlier✃ Thursday evening, a judge in Austin had paused the execution after Texas lawmakers issued a subpoena for Roberson to testify in front of them next week in a last-ditch effort to pause the execution.
“This is an extraordinary remedy the Legislature is seeking.🎃 But it is noܫt undue.
The Legislature is allowed this constitutional aut🐼hority,” state꧋ Rep. Jeff Leach, a Republican and member of the Texas House Criminal Jurisprudence Committee, said during the Zoom court hearing.
Roberson, 57, was convicted of killing of his daughter, Nikki Curtis, in the East Texas city of Palestine. Roberson has long proclaimed his innocence, backed by some notable Republican lawmakers, Texas GOP megadonor and conservative activist Doug Deason and the lead detective on the case. Roberson’s lawyers and some medical experts say hi🔯s daughter died not from abuse but from complications related to pneumonia.
“He’s an innocent man and we’re very close to killing him for something he did not do,” said Brian Wharton, the lead detective with Palesti♌ne police who investigated Curtis’ death.
Lawyers ask Texas governor and Supreme Court to intervene
Roberson’s lawyers waited to see if Abbott would grant Roberson a one-time 3꧟0-day reprieve. It’s the only action Abbott can take in the case as the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles on Wednesday denied Roberson’s cleme🍎ncy petition.
T♚he board voted unanimo♍usly, 6-0, to not recommend that Roberson’s death sentence be commuted to life in prison or that his execution be delayed.
All board members are appointed by the governor. The parole board has recommended clemency in a death row case only six times since the𝓀 state resuꦦmed executions in 1982.
In his nea🍒rly 10 years as governor, Abbott has halted only one imminent execution, when he spared the life of Thomas Whitaker 𝔉in 2018.
“We pray that Governor Abbott does everything in his power to prevent the tragic, irreversibl⭕e mistake of executing an innocent man,” Gretchen Sween, one of Roberson’s attorneys, said in a statement.
A spoꦦkespersꦛon for Abbott did not immediately reply to an email seeking comment.
Bipartisan committee takes extraordinary step to try to stop execution
The Texas committee on Wednesday heꦆld an all-day meeting on Roberson’s case. In a surprise move at the end of the hearing, the committee issued a subpoena for Roberson to testify next week.
During its meeting ꦛin Austin, the committee heard testimony about Roberson’s case and whether a 2013 law created to allow people in prison to challenge their convictions based on new scientific evidence was ignored in Roberson’s case.
Anderson County District Attorney Allyson Mitchell, whose office prosecuted Roberson, told the committee a court hearing was held in 2022 in which Roberson’s attorneys 🦩presented their new evidence to a judge,𓄧 who rejected their claims.
“Based on the t♎otality of the evidence, a murder took place here. Mr. Roberson took the life of his almost 3-year-old daughter,” Mitchell said.
Most of the members of the committee are part of a bipartisan group of more than 80 state lawmakers,ꦛ including ꦦat least 30 Republicans, who had asked the parole board and Abbott to stop the execution.
Execution puts spotlight on shaken baby syndrome
Roberson’s case has renewed debate over shaken baby syndrome, known in the medical community a𝔉s abusive head trauma.
His lawyers as well as the Texas lawmakers, medical experts and others including bestselling author John Grisham ;say his conviction💦 was based on faulty and now outdated scientific evidence.
The diagnosis 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 ಌsupporters don’t deny head and other injuries from child abuse are real.
But they say doctors misdiagnosed Curtis’ injuries as being related to shaken baby syndrome and th𒁏at new evidence has sh🌄own the girl died from complications related to severe pneumonia.
Roberson’s attorneys say his daughter had fallen out of bed in Roberson’s home after being seriously ill for💛 a week.
Roberson’s ꧙lawyers also suggested his autism, then undiagnosed at the time of his daughter’s death, was used against him as authorities became suspicious of him because of his lack of emotion over her deaꦇth.
Autism affects how people communicate and interact with o𝓡thers.
