Texas Supreme Court of Criminal Appeals overturns man’s conviction in DeSoto’s shaken baby case

The state’s highest criminal appeals court has overturned the conviction of a Dallas County man accused of injuring a child, saying scientific advances undermine the closely tested “shaken baby syndrome” theory used to prosecute him became.

Andrew Wayne Roark, 47, was sentenced to 35 years in prison for injury to a child. His 2000 trial focused on medical evidence that prosecutors said proved the 1-year-old child was violently shaken, causing permanent brain damage.

The novel, 57-page opinion is the first time the Texas Court of Appeals has evaluated the entirety of the shaken baby syndrome hypothesis, said Roark’s appellate attorney Gary Udashen. The ruling published on Wednesday could have far-reaching implications for similar cases.

“The scientific understanding of these infant head injury cases has fundamentally evolved and changed,” Udashen said. “The entire theory under which they prosecuted Andrew – and many other cases across the country – has been shown to be scientifically and medically invalid over the last 20 years.”

According to court records, Roark has been out of prison on bail for more than a decade. The case now heads back to Dallas County, where Roark could be retried or prosecutors could dismiss the charges.

A spokeswoman for the Dallas County District Attorney’s Office declined to comment.

The appeals court wrote in its landmark 6-3 ruling that Roark was found guilty based on rebuttable scientific and circumstantial evidence. The judges said he would not have been convicted if “new scientific evidence” had been presented in Roark’s trial. The justices cited the 2013 “Junk Science Writ,” which allows people to challenge convictions by showing that scientific alterations – such as DNA, fingerprint and bite mark analysis – undermine the integrity of their trial.

Courts across the country have rejected the scientific evidence or overturned shaken baby syndrome convictions in recent years. More than 30 people in prison for shaken baby syndrome convictions were later found innocent, according to the National Registry of Exonerations.

The decision in the Roark case comes about a week before the scheduled execution in Texas of Robert Roberson, who is accused of shaking his 2-year-old daughter to death. If executed, Roberson would be the first person in the country to be executed for shaken baby syndrome.

Roberson’s attorney, Gretchen Sween, said in a statement that the same child abuse specialist testified at the trials against Roark and Roberson. Sween said Roberson also “logically should be granted a new trial.”

Lawyers, lawmakers and advocates have called on the state to suspend execution by lethal injection on Oct. 17. An East Texas judge will discuss on Tuesday whether to cancel the execution.