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Texas’ highest criminal court on Thursday blocked Robert Roberson’s execution a week before it was set to take place, sending his case back to trial court.
Roberson was convicted of capital murder in 2003 for the death of his two-year-old daughter Nikki, who was diagnosed with shaken baby syndrome. He has maintained his innocence over more than 20 years on death row, with his attorneys arguing that the science behind Nikki’s shaken baby diagnosis no longer held up. He was scheduled to be executed on Oct. 16.
After previously denying his recent appeals, largely on procedural grounds, the all-Republican Court of Criminal Appeals granted Roberson’s request for a stay of execution under Texas’ groundbreaking 2013 junk science law, which provides for a second look when the science driving a conviction has since been debunked. The law has never been successfully used to secure a new trial for a death row inmate, though Roberson could be the first if the trial court in Anderson County finds that the evidence warrants one.
In its order, the Court of Criminal Appeals cited its decision last year to overturn a shaken baby conviction out of Dallas based on the evolving medical research of the diagnosis.
“There is a delicate balance and tension in our criminal justice system between the finality of judgment and its accuracy based on our ever-advancing scientific understanding,” Court of Criminal Appeals Judge Bert Richardson wrote in a concurring opinion. “A death sentence is clearly final and, once carried out, hindsight is useless.”
In his most recent appeal, Roberson’s attorneys presented additional medical and expert opinions finding that Nikki died of natural and accidental causes — not abuse. Those conclusions echoed forensic opinions presented in his earlier appeals.
“This Subsequent Application is supported by additional new evidence establishing that Roberson’s conviction was based on discredited and unreliable forensic science and that he is actually innocent,” Roberson’s attorneys wrote. “There was no homicide, only the tragic death of his very ill little girl.”
Experts found that Nikki had undiagnosed chronic pneumonia and was prescribed medications no longer given to toddlers her age. Those medications suppressed her breathing, which led to brain swelling, according to those experts. Her condition devolved into sepsis, causing a bleeding disorder that made her bruise easily.
“None of these circumstances were identified or even considered, let alone excluded, in assessing her condition,” Roberson’s attorneys wrote.
Roberson’s conviction had become a political lightning rod, with a bipartisan group of lawmakers and advocates fighting for him to get a new trial and another group of Republicans, including Attorney General Ken Paxton, clamoring for his execution.
“While the system has failed Robert and Nikki at every turn, today, with this action by the Court, truth and justice finally win the day,” Rep. Jeff Leach, R-Allen and a lead advocate for Roberson, said in a statement. “Going forward, we are hopeful and expectant that Robert’s story, and the truth about what happened to Nikki, will fully and finally see the light of day in the trial court, which is what we’ve been asking for and working for all along.”
Roberson’s execution was delayed last year after a Texas House committee subpoenaed him the day before he was set to be put to death, in a last-ditch gambit to buy him more time. The subpoena deepened a sharp political clash between the state’s elected leaders and prompted the Texas Supreme Court to step in with an order temporarily delaying the execution.
Texas lawmakers had argued the courts were not properly applying the junk science law, which Roberson had repeatedly tried to use to overturn his conviction. A bill to bolster the law overwhelmingly passed the House earlier this year but died in the Senate.
The Court of Criminal Appeals had previously halted Roberson’s execution in 2016 based on the junk science law, sending it back to the trial court in Anderson County for further consideration. The trial court later declined to grant him a new trial, and the Court of Criminal Appeals agreed in 2023 that doubt around the cause of Nikki’s death was not enough to overturn his death sentence.
Roberson’s attorneys argued at the time that the state and the courts had not meaningfully considered the reams of new evidence undermining Nikki’s shaken baby diagnosis.
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