Last-minute Texas Supreme Court halts execution of man in shaken baby case

The Texas Supreme Court halted Oct. 17 night’s scheduled execution of a man who would have become the first person in the United States put to death for a murder conviction tied to a diagnosis of shaken baby syndrome.

The late-night ruling to spare for now the life of Robert Roberson, who was convicted of killing his 2-year-old daughter in 2002, capped a flurry of last-ditch legal challenges and weeks of public pressure from both Republican and Democratic lawmakers who say he is innocent and was sent to death row based on flawed science.

In the hours leading up to the ruling, Mr. Roberson had been confined to a prison holding cell a few feet from America’s busiest death chamber at the Walls Unit in Hunstville, waiting for certainty over whether he would be taken to die by lethal injection.

“He was shocked, to say the least,” said Texas Department of Criminal Justice spokesperson Amanda Hernandez, who spoke with Mr. Roberson after the court stayed his execution. “He praised God and he thanked his supporters. And that’s pretty much what he had to say.”

She said Mr. Roberson would be returned to the Polunsky Unit, about 45 miles to the east, where the state’s male death row is located.

Mr. Roberson was convicted of killing of his daughter, Nikki Curtis, in the East Texas city of Palestine. His lawyers and some medical experts say his daughter died not from abuse but from complications related to pneumonia.

Order capped a night of last-minute maneuvers

It is rare for the Texas Supreme Court – the state’s highest civil court – to get involved in a criminal matter.

But how the all-Republican court wound up stopping Mr. Roberson’s execution in the final hours underlined the extraordinary maneuvers used by a bipartisan coalition of state House lawmakers who have come to his defense.

Rejected by courts and Texas’ parole board in their efforts to spare Mr. Roberson’s life, legislators on Oct. 16 tried a different route: issuing a subpoena for Mr. Roberson to testify before a House committee next week, which would be days after he was scheduled to die. The unusual plan to buy time, some of them conceded, had never been tried before.

They argued that executing Mr. Roberson before he could offer subpoenaed testimony would violate the Legislature’s constitutional authority. Less than two hours before Mr. Roberson’s execution, a judge in Austin sided with lawmakers and paused the execution, but that was then reversed by an appeals panel. The Texas Supreme Court then weighed in with its order, ending a night of uncertainty.

Mr. Roberson is scheduled to testify before the committee Oct. 21.

“This is an innocent man. And there’s too much shadow of a doubt in this case,” said Democratic state Rep. John Bucy. “I agree this is a unique decision today. We know this is not a done deal. He has a unique experience to tell and we need to hear that testimony in committee on Monday.”

Governor and US Supreme Court did not move to halt execution

Gov. Greg Abbott had authority to delay Mr. Roberson’s punishment for 30 days. Mr. Abbott has halted only one imminent execution in nearly a decade as governor and has not spoken publicly about the case.

Earlier Oct. 17, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to halt the execution, although Justice Sonia Sotomayor – in a 10-page statement about the case – urged Mr. Abbott to grant a 30-day delay.

Mr. Roberson’s lawyers had waited to see if Mr. Abbott would grant Mr. Roberson the one-time reprieve. It would have been the only action Mr. Abbott could take in the case as the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles on Oct. 16 denied Mr. Roberson’s clemency petition.

The board voted unanimously, 6-0, to not recommend that Mr. Roberson’s death sentence be commuted to life in prison or that his execution be delayed. All board members are appointed by the governor. The parole board has recommended clemency in a death row case only six times since the state resumed executions in 1982.

The one time Mr. Abbott halted an imminent execution was when he spared the life of Thomas Whitaker in 2018.

Lawmakers invoke Texas’ law on scientific evidence

The House committee on Oct. 16 held an all-day meeting on Mr. Roberson’s case. In a surprise move at the end of the hearing, the committee issued the subpoena for Mr. Roberson to testify next week.

During its meeting in Austin, the committee heard testimony about Mr. Roberson’s case and whether a 2013 law created to allow people in prison to challenge their convictions based on new scientific evidence was ignored in Mr. Roberson’s case.

Anderson County District Attorney Allyson Mitchell, whose office prosecuted Mr. Roberson, told the committee a court hearing was held in 2022 in which Mr. Roberson’s attorneys presented their new evidence to a judge, who rejected their claims.

“Based on the totality of the evidence, a murder took place here. Mr. Roberson took the life of his almost 3-year-old daughter,” Ms. Mitchell said.

Most of the members of the House committee are part of a bipartisan group of more than 80 state lawmakers, including at least 30 Republicans, who had asked the parole board and Mr. Abbott to stop the execution.

Case puts spotlight on shaken baby syndrome

Mr. Roberson’s case has renewed debate over shaken baby syndrome, known in the medical community as abusive head trauma.

His lawyers as well as the Texas lawmakers, medical experts, and others including bestselling author John Grisham say his conviction was based on faulty and now outdated scientific evidence. The diagnosis refers to a serious brain injury caused when a child’s head is hurt through shaking or some other violent impact, like being slammed against a wall or thrown on the floor.

Mr. Roberson’s supporters don’t deny head and other injuries from child abuse are real. But they say doctors misdiagnosed Nikki’s injuries as being related to shaken baby syndrome and that new evidence has shown the girl died from complications related to severe pneumonia.

Mr. Roberson’s attorneys say his daughter had fallen out of bed in Mr. Roberson’s home after being seriously ill for a week.

Mr. Roberson’s lawyers also suggested his autism, then undiagnosed at the time of his daughter’s death, was used against him as authorities became suspicious of him because of his lack of emotion over her death. Autism affects how people communicate and interact with others.

This story was reported by The Associated Press.