He is set to be put to death this week, but Robbie Roberson's conviction was based on 'junk science' that has been widely discredited.
He is set to be put to death this week, but Robbie Roberson's conviction was based on" junk science " that has been widely discredited.},{ "name":"Editor Picks", "component":"17105533", "insertPoint":"4", "requiredCountToDisplay":"1", "watchElement":".
The advent of DNA evidence has shown a great number of convictions to be suspect in their own right, and prosecutorial and police misconduct has been more central to the discourse thanks to documentaries like“In 1994, the public still had little to no idea of the scope of wrongful convictions in the United States. They still do not.” says Kristin Brown, a Dallas-based criminal defense attorney.
Nikki was also reportedly prescribed a promethazine/codeine cough syrup by a pediatrician two days before her final ER visit, and despite evidence of the drug’s possibly fatal quantities in Nikki’s bloodstream, its common side effect of respiratory depression did not appear to be fully taken into account by the medical examiner in her trial testimony.
Other developments that could help Roberson’s case have since transpired. On Oct. 9, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, the highest criminal court in Texas,to reverse another dubious “shaken baby syndrome” case and set it for a new trial. That case involved Dallas man Andrew Roark, who medical professionals similarly suspected of abusing his girlfriend’s daughter in 2000. Roark was convicted on a charge of injury to a child, and not murder.
Despite Sween regarding the junk science law as “trailblazing,” the faithfulness of its judicial application has been called into question. As she explains it, appealing a conviction to an intermediate court is the first chance a defendant has to ask for relief. As a matter of procedure, appeals courts begin their review with a baseline presumption that the trial court got it right. Judges overwhelmingly defer to a jury’s fact-findings, so for the most part, appeals courts focus only on areas of law.
Andrew Roark Shaken Baby Syndrome Marcellus Williams Junk Science Death Penalty
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