Texas Board Denies Clemency in Shaken Baby Syndrome Case

Robert Roberson is scheduled to be executed Thursday evening
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Oct 16, 2024 2:30 PM CDT
Texas Board: No Clemency for Man in Shaken Baby Case
Texas lawmakers meet with Robert Roberson at a prison in Livingston, Texas, Sept. 27, 2024.   (Criminal Justice Reform Caucus via AP, File)

The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles has denied a request for clemency for a man who this week could be the first person in the US executed for a murder conviction tied to the diagnosis of shaken baby syndrome. The parole board voted Wednesday against recommending that Robert Roberson's death sentence be commuted to life in prison or that his execution be delayed, the AP reports. Roberson, 57, is scheduled to receive a lethal injection Thursday evening for the 2002 killing of his 2-year-old daughter, Nikki Curtis. Roberson has long proclaimed his innocence.

Gov. Greg Abbott can only grant clemency after receiving a recommendation from the board. Abbott does have the power to grant a one-time 30-day reprieve without a board recommendation.

  • Brian Wharton, the lead detective with Palestine police who investigated Curtis' death, told members of the Texas House Criminal Jurisprudence Committee on Wednesday that he feels shame for playing a role in Roberson's conviction as he had doubts about the case during his trial. He called on the parole board and Gov. Greg Abbott to halt his execution.
  • "Don't make my mistake. Listen to Robert. Hear his voice wherever you can find him, on the pages of all those documents you have from his attorney. But listen and you will hear innocence," Wharton told members of the committee, most of whom are part of a bipartisan group of more than 80 state lawmakers who have asked the parole board and Abbott to stop the execution.

  • Roberson's lawyers, the Texas lawmakers, medical experts, and others say his conviction was based on faulty and now outdated scientific evidence related to shaken baby syndrome. 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 supporters don't deny that head and other injuries from child abuse are real. But they say doctors misdiagnosed Curtis' injuries as being related to shaken baby syndrome and that new evidence has shown the girl died not from abuse but from complications related to severe pneumonia.
  • The committee has asked the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals to halt the execution, CNN reports. "It is beyond dispute that medical evidence presented at Mr. Roberson's trial in 2003 is inconsistent with modern scientific principles," they wrote, citing a "junk science" law that allows people to challenge convictions if new scientific evidence emerges.
  • In an op-ed published Tuesday, crime novelist John Grisham asked: "Are we more willing to accept a potentially innocent man's execution than to revisit a case?"
(More shaken baby syndrome stories.)

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