The state’s highest criminal court’s refusal to stay the Oct. 17 execution leaves the Palestine man with few options amid widespread support for clemency.
If Robert Roberson is executed on Oct. 17, he would become the first person in the country put to death on the basis of a shaken baby syndrome diagnosis.The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals denied one of death row inmate Robert Roberson’s final appeals on Friday, declining to halt his Oct. 17 execution and again rejecting his long-standing claim of innocence and argument that his conviction was based on a now-debunked shaken baby syndrome diagnosis.
Roberson’s attorneys have disputed that conclusion, saying that the state’s claim that Nikki suffered multiple impacts is “erroneous” and “flatly misrepresents what was established during the evidentiary hearing.” At trial, doctors testified that Nikki’s death was consistent with shaken baby syndrome — in which an infant is severely injured from being shaken violently back and forth — and a jury convicted Roberson.
“It is irrefutable that Nikki’s medical records show that she was severely ill during the last week of her life,” Roberson’s lawyers wrote, noting that in the week before her death, Roberson had taken Nikki to the emergency room because she had been coughing, wheezing and struggling with diarrhea for several days, and to her pediatrician’s office, where her temperature was recorded at 104.5 degrees.
After learning about Roberson’s disability and Nikki’s illness, Brian Wharton — the lead detective in Nikki’s death who sided with the state at trial — said that he believed in Roberson’s innocence and regretted his role in the trial.
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