The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has again paused the execution of Robert Roberson, who was scheduled to become the first person in the US put to death for a murder conviction tied to shaken baby syndrome. Roberson, who has maintained his innocence in the death of his two-year-old daughter Nikki Curtis, had been due to receive a lethal injection on 16 October.
This is the third time since 2016 that Roberson's execution date has been stayed. The latest intervention follows an unprecedented move nearly a year ago by a bipartisan group of Texas lawmakers who believe he is innocent. The court's decision sends the case back to the original trial court in Anderson County for a hearing on whether Roberson should be entitled to a retrial under Texas's junk science law, which was introduced in 2013 to protect prisoners from debunked forensic evidence.
Roberson's lawyer, Gretchen Sween, welcomed the stay, stating: 'Robert adored Nikki, whose death was a tragedy, a horror compounded by Robert's wrongful conviction that devastated his whole family. We are confident that an objective review of the science and medical evidence will show there was no crime.' David Schenck, the presiding judge of the Court of Criminal Appeals, wrote in a concurring opinion that the stay 'prevents what I see as Roberson's potentially unconstitutional execution in view of evidence undermining his conviction and sentence.'
Prosecutors at Roberson's 2003 trial argued that he hit and violently shook his daughter, causing severe head trauma. However, his lawyers and some medical experts now say Nikki died from complications related to pneumonia, not abuse. They claim the conviction was based on flawed and now outdated scientific evidence. The latest appeal included a joint statement from ten independent pathologists who said the medical examiner's autopsy report was 'not reliable'.
The case has divided Texas's ruling Republican party, with several Republican legislators backing Roberson while the state's attorney general, Ken Paxton, continues to push for execution. Brian Harrison, a Republican member of the Texas House, praised the judges who issued the stay, saying they had been brave 'even in the face of tremendous – and dishonest – political pressure to execute a potentially innocent person who has never been given a fair trial'.
