HOUSTON– A Texas man who could become the first person in the U.S. to be executed this week on a murder conviction linked to his diagnosis shaken baby syndrome was awaiting a decision on his pardon request from a state board on Wednesday.
The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles’ decision on whether to recommend it Execution of Robert Roberson would be terminated on Thursday, either through a commutation of his sentence or a postponement. A reprieve was expected to come the same day a Texas House committee was scheduled to meet in Austin to discuss his case.
“We’re going to bring attention to this case so that all 31 million Texans can hear, watch and see it. And we are hopeful that we will be able to hit the pause button on this case Thursday evening,” said State Rep. Jeff Leach, one of the members of the Texas House Criminal Jurisprudence Committee that meets Wednesday.
Leach, a Republican, is part of a bipartisan group of more than 80 state lawmakers who have asked the parole board and Gov. Greg Abbott to halt the execution.
Roberson, 57, is expected to receive a lethal injection for the 2002 killing of his 2-year-old daughter, Nikki Curtis, in the East Texas city of Palestine. Roberson has long proclaimed his innocence.
Abbott can only grant clemency after receiving a recommendation from the parole board. Under Texas law, Abbott has the authority to grant a one-time 30-day extension without a recommendation from the board.
In his nearly decade as governor, Abbott has stopped just one pending execution, in 2018 when he spared the life of Thomas Whitaker.
The parole board has recommended clemency in a death row case only six times since the state resumed executions in 1982.
Roberson’s attorneys, Texas lawmakers, medical experts and others say his conviction was based on flawed and now outdated scientific evidence regarding shaken baby syndrome. The diagnosis refers to a serious brain injury caused when a child’s head is injured by shaking or other violent impact, such as being thrown against a wall or thrown to the ground.
Roberson’s supporters do not deny that head and other injuries from child abuse are real. But they say doctors misdiagnosed Curtis’ injuries as being related to shaken baby syndrome and new evidence has shown the girl died not from abuse but from complications related to severe pneumonia.
The American Academy of PediatricsOther medical organizations and plaintiffs say the diagnosis is valid and that doctors look at all possible issues, including possible illnesses, when determining whether injuries are due to shaken baby syndrome.
The Anderson County District Attorney’s Office, which prosecuted Roberson, has said in court documents that after a 2022 hearing to consider the new evidence in the case, a judge rejected theories that pneumonia and other illnesses caused Curtis’ death.
On Tuesday, an East Texas judge denied requests from Roberson’s attorneys to halt his lethal injection by rescinding the execution order and reprimanding the judge who issued the order.
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