Texas GOP Jury Grants Death for Questionable 'Shaken-Baby' Science

Texas: Last-Minute Bid to Halt Execution Based on 'Junk Science'

Oh, look who's in a hurry! A bipartisan group of lawmakers in Texas have summoned an emergency hearing to stop the execution of an East Texas man. Why? Because the state's highest criminal court decided not to play hero and halt the execution of Robert Roberson, a man convicted in 2003 for allegedly killing his 2-year-old daughter. The caped crusaders of the House Committee on Criminal Jurisprudence will convene on Wednesday, just one day before Roberson is set to be executed in Huntsville, about 160 miles east of Austin.

For over two decades, Roberson has insisted that he didn’t harm his daughter Nikki Curtis. Instead, he says the child fell out of her bed and he rushed her limp body to the hospital to save her. But hey, who are we to believe?

A jury convicted the 57-year-old native of Palestine, Texas, of murder in the 2002 death. Prosecutors claimed the baby died from “shaken baby syndrome.” Shortly after the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals' decision on Friday, the House Criminal Jurisprudence Committee, chaired by El Paso Democrat Joe Moody, posted notice of the hearing focusing on the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure known as the “Junk Science” provision.

Don't get us wrong, shaking a baby can cause serious and deadly injuries. But many experts question the diagnosis in Nikki's case. The child had been given dangerous levels of cough medications after contracting a severe infection days earlier, and some experts who reviewed her records determined she had sepsis when she died, according to court records.

If executed, Roberson would become the first person in the U.S. to be executed for a conviction made under the “shaken baby syndrome” hypothesis. What a legacy!

In the Oct. 7 motion for a stay presented to the Criminal Appeals Court, attorney Gretchen Sween said that Texas Code of Criminal Procedure Article 11.073 — the same law the House committee cited in its Wednesday hearing notice — should allow the inmate's conviction to be overturned due to new evidence.

In response, the Anderson County Criminal District Attorney argued that experts in the original case found Roberson inflicted blunt force trauma on the child in addition to shaking her. They asserted that the new filing for a stay was an “attempt to rehash the same claims previously rejected by this Court.”

State Rep. Jeff Leach, a Plano Republican who's been a frequent critic of Texas' death penalty, called the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals' unsigned opinion "a terribly unjust and unconscionable decision” in a social media post on Friday.

“We’re barreling towards an execution when a strong bipartisan majority of #txlege reps aren’t even sure a crime occurred—and are very sure due process didn’t,” Moody wrote in a social media post after announcing the hearing Friday. “We have to do all we can to pump the brakes before this stains Texas justice for generations.”

Moody and Leach led a bipartisan call for clemency to the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles, which 86 lawmakers joined in mid-September. The board has not yet acted on the petition, but they can either deny the request or send a clemency recommendation to the governor for consideration.

If denied, the governor may issue a one-time 30-day reprieve. Roberson's lawyers also argue that a hearing set in Anderson County on Tuesday should toss out the execution warrant signed by a retired judge, who they claim is biased.

Supporting Roberson are 34 scientists and medical experts, 70 attorneys who have represented people wrongfully accused of child abuse, eight advocates for parental rights, eight organizations that advocate for those with autism, the Texas Catholic Conference of Bishops, and other faith organizations.

Brian Wharton, the lead detective in Roberson's case, has also joined the efforts to save him. “There has been no crime committed here. Nikki died of accidental and natural causes,” the retired East Palestine detective told journalists. “I will be forever haunted by my participation in his arrest and prosecution. He is an innocent man.”

Statesman staff writer Bridget Grumet contributed reporting.