Robert Roberson: Texas court issues last-minute ruling blocking execution of father in shaken baby syndrome case

The Texas Supreme Court on Thursday blocked the execution of a man who was set to die just before the convicted murderer was scheduled to be put to death.

Robert Roberson, 57, was scheduled to be executed for the 2002 death of his 2-year-old daughter Nikki Curtis at the Huntsville Unit in Huntsville, Texas, around 6 p.m.

Late Thursday, however, the state’s highest court blocked the killing of Roberson – an autistic father at the center of a controversial “shaken baby syndrome” case.

“After learning of the stay, he praised God and thanked his supporters,” Amanda Hernandez, a spokeswoman for the Texas Department of Corrections, told media.

The decision was the latest in a series of last-minute legal maneuvers to delay the killing. Earlier in the day, a judge in Travis County, Texas, issued a temporary restraining order to stop the execution.

That ruling followed a vote by the Texas House of Representatives Criminal Justice Committee to summon Roberson to an Oct. 21 hearing, an unprecedented attempt to delay the execution.

Roberson would be the first person ever executed in connection with shaken baby syndrome, which has been largely discredited by scientists.

Prosecutors allege Roberson “brutally murdered his own child” by shaking and hitting him, causing blunt force trauma, according to court documents.

But a host of lawyers, medical experts and state lawmakers rejected that position, claiming instead that Nikki died of a combination of severe, undiagnosed chronic viral pneumonia, aggravated by secondary acute bacterial pneumonia that progressed to sepsis .

“In other words, there was no murder,” a group of medical professionals wrote to the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles, which voted against granting clemency to Roberson on Wednesday. “Mr. Roberson should not have been convicted, let alone convicted and sentenced to death.” Gov. Greg Abbott has the authority to grant a 30-day reprieve.

The parole board’s vote came during a Texas House of Representatives hearing on the case, which included testimony from medical experts, Roberson’s lead attorney and Anderson County District Attorney Allyson Mitchell, who set Roberson’s execution date.

In a heated exchange with a lawmaker, viewed online by The IndependentMitchell declined to say whether she was 100 percent sure Roberson murdered his child, saying she would have to review the trial transcript before she could answer specific questions about the case. She acknowledged that the criminal justice system sometimes fails, but said she trusts the process in the Roberson case.

Republican Rep. Brian Harrison vetted Mitchell. “To be clear, you are putting your trust in the process, which you previously admitted sometimes fails,” he said.

Following the parole board’s decision, Roberson’s lawyers filed a petition with the U.S. Supreme Court seeking a stay of execution, asking the justices to consider whether the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals denied him due process by refusing to hear new scientific and medical evidence to consider his innocence. The judges declined to intervene.

Days before his daughter’s death, Roberson took Nikki to the emergency room in Palestine, Texas, because she was suffering from a respiratory infection, diarrhea and vomiting. A doctor prescribed Phenergan and Roberson took Nikki home. The next day, she developed a fever of 104 degrees and was given another dose of the drug in combination with codeine, according to court documents.

The Federal Drug Administration no longer recommends the combination for children due to the risk of induced breathing difficulties and death. According to court documents, Nikki had a long history of chronic health problems, including respiratory failure.

Roberson later left the hospital with his daughter, took her home and put her to bed.

The next morning he said he woke up to a strange scream and found Nikki on the floor at the foot of the bed. He said he comforted her and the two went back to sleep, court records say. When he woke up later that morning, he said Nikki was unconscious and had blue lips. He claims he tried to resuscitate her and rushed her to the emergency room, but she already had signs of brain damage, including staring and dilated eyes.

She was taken to Children’s Medical Center in Dallas, where she died of her injuries on February 1, 2002.

A pediatrician determined that abuse played a role in the girl’s death after finding signs on her body typically associated with shaken baby syndrome, including a subdural hematoma, a swelling of the brain and retinal hemorrhages. At the time, the medical community believed that the symptoms indicated that a child had been violently shaken and possibly struck against a dull surface. It is now assumed that other medical problems can also lead to the same symptoms.

The coroner ruled Nikki’s death a homicide. Doctors and law enforcement did not investigate the incident further, nor did they take into account her prescribed medications and pre-existing conditions, court records show. At the time of her death, there was no one else with Nikki and Roberson had sole custody.

Nikki’s mother was homeless and a drug addict. Child Protective Services took her in at birth, long before Roberson was identified as the girl’s father. She had been at Roberson for less than a year.

Authorities charged Roberson with murder the day after her death. He was convicted the following year.

In 2013, Texas enacted Article 11,073, called the “Junk Science Statute,” which allows for the review of wrongful convictions based on junk science. The law was the subject of a nine-day evidentiary hearing in the Roberson case in March 2021. The following year, the sentencing court recommended that no compensation be awarded.

Last week, the Texas Court of Appeals ruled that a Dallas man sentenced to 35 years in prison on the basis of discredited scientific evidence deserved a new trial, claiming a jury would not convict him today on the same facts. Roberson’s prosecutors argued that the Dallas man’s case was different because the only evidence of injury came from the defendant’s alleged shaking.

On Wednesday, the appeals court rejected an emergency motion and briefs related to Roberson on procedural grounds.

Brian Wharton, a former lead investigator assigned to prosecute Roberson, recounted The Independent He found him in the hospital in a stoic state and not behaving as he would have expected a distraught father to behave. Roberson was diagnosed with autism in 2018, which Wharton believes has now contributed to his behavior.

It appears to be a simple case, Wharton said. His doubts surfaced during Roberson’s trial. He didn’t believe the defense was up to the task and suspected the jury had been tainted after the district attorney filed child sexual assault charges that were later dropped.

After Roberson was sentenced to death, Wharton hoped the verdict would be overturned on appeal. He checked the case regularly for updates.

“I was confident, in my own naive way, that the system I was a part of would check itself, and obviously there has been no effort to do that in recent years,” Wharton said in a telephone interview. He no longer believes the scientific evidence used to accuse Roberson is credible.

He left the police force in 2006 and is now a pastor in Onalaska, Texas.

When asked how he would feel if Roberson was executed, he replied: “I’m so angry I could spit nails.

“Oh God, the sadness. This is the deepest part of my shame. I visit him now and I don’t remember seeing him the way I see him now. He is a kind and gentle man, a kind man, a joyful man, a hopeful man.

“There is no meanness in him. There will be great sadness that I was involved in the killing of something so beautiful.”