Texas man with autism faces death penalty for suspected child murder

The Texas Pardon Board on Wednesday rejected a request for clemency from an autistic man on death row whose murder conviction was based on a misdiagnosis of “shaken baby syndrome,” his lawyers said.

Robert Roberson, 57, is scheduled to die by lethal injection Thursday at the state prison in Huntsville in the February 2002 death of his 2-year-old daughter, Nikki.

The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles took up Roberson’s case on Wednesday and declined 6-0 to recommend clemency to Texas Gov. Greg Abbott.

Without a recommendation from the panel, Abbott cannot grant clemency, but he can grant a 30-day stay on Roberson’s death sentence.

Gretchen Sween, one of Roberson’s lawyers, called on the governor to grant the stay “so that we can further pursue Mr. Roberson’s claim of innocence.”

“We pray that Governor Abbott does everything in his power to prevent the tragic, irreversible mistake of executing an innocent man,” Sween said.

Roberson’s case has attracted the attention of the Innocence Project, which works to overturn wrongful convictions, as well as best-selling American author John Grisham, Texas lawmaker and medical expert.

Among those who want to stop his execution is the man who put him behind bars: Brian Wharton, the former chief detective for the city of Palestine.

“Knowing everything I know now, I firmly believe that Robert is an innocent man,” Wharton said at a recent news conference organized by Roberson’s supporters. “The system failed, Robert.”

Grisham, author of the legal thrillers “The Firm” and “A Time to Kill,” also appeared at the event and said, “The amazing thing about Robert’s case is that there was no crime.”

Roberson’s lawyers say the diagnosis of shaken baby syndrome made at the hospital where his chronically ill daughter died was incorrect and the cause of death was actually pneumonia that worsened when doctors prescribed incorrect medication.

Sween, Roberson’s attorney, said there is “overwhelming new medical and scientific evidence” showing that the little girl died “of natural and accidental causes and not of abuse.”

According to his lawyers, Roberson would be the first person executed in the United States for a shaken baby syndrome conviction.

‘Unscientific’

More than 30 parents and caregivers in 18 states have been exonerated after being wrongfully convicted based on “unscientific” testimony from shaken babies, according to Kate Judson of the Center for Integrity in Forensic Sciences.

Sween said Roberson’s autism spectrum disorder, which was only diagnosed in 2018, contributed to his arrest and conviction.

“It is entirely possible that Mr. Roberson would not be on death row today if he did not have autism,” she said.

Sween said staff at the hospital where his daughter was admitted did not know he had autism and “judged his flat affect as a sign of guilt.”

A bipartisan group of 86 Texas state lawmakers also called for clemency for Roberson, citing “extensive new scientific evidence” that casts doubt on his guilt.

There were 19 executions in the United States this year.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)