Texas set to execute man on discredited ‘shaken child syndrome’ speculation

Robert Roberson is ready to be the primary particular person to be executed within the U.S. primarily based on the largely discredited “shaken child syndrome” speculation until Texas officers intervene.

On Monday, Roberson’s attorneys filed an emergency movement asking the Texas Court docket of Legal Appeals to halt Roberson’s Oct. 17 execution.

“[Roberson] fluctuates between despair, after which being buoyed with hope when anybody expresses sympathy and encouragement,” his lawyer Gretchen Sween informed ABC Information. “It’s one more layer of cruelty on this course of watching what he is going by way of.”

Nikki’s demise

In accordance with Roberson’s attorneys, he woke as much as discover his 2-year-old daughter Nikki mendacity on the ground on the foot of the mattress one evening in 2002. They are saying Roberson comforted her, put her again to mattress and went again to sleep himself. He discovered Nikki unconscious with blue lips when he wakened the subsequent morning. He took her to an emergency room, the place she was finally pronounced useless.

Roberson, a 57-year-old man, was then convicted in her demise.

Roberson was discovered responsible primarily based on the testimony from a pediatrician who cited swelling and hemorrhages in Nikki’s mind on the time as a “shaken child syndrome” analysis although there’s restricted proof to help this as an correct analysis. The speculation has come below critical scrutiny in biomechanical research, in addition to lengthening medical and authorized literature. The medical expert additionally suspected that Nikki sustained a number of head accidents, and regarded the demise a murder within the official post-mortem.

ABC Information has reached out to each the pediatrician and medical expert cited in courtroom paperwork for remark.

Roberson is autistic, in response to his authorized group, which impacts how he expresses feelings — a priority that additionally arose throughout the trial.

Since his conviction, new proof discovered that Nikki had pneumonia on the time of her demise and had been prescribed respiratory-suppressing medication by docs within the days main as much as her demise. These medication embody the narcotic drug codeine and promethazine, each of that are not prescribed to kids Nikki’s age or these in her situation as a result of it may impair their capability to breathe and be lethal.

Following a autopsy toxicology report, medical toxicology and emergency room medication professional Dr. Keenan Bora concluded that prime ranges of promethazine are prone to have exacerbated Nikki’s points respiratory.

A reexamination of her lung tissue by lung pathology professional Dr. Francis Inexperienced additionally discovered that persistent interstitial viral pneumonia and acute bacterial pneumonia have been damaging her lungs, inflicting sepsis after which septic shock, resulting in important organ failure.

Over 30 medical and scientific consultants have written to the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles to rethink Roberson’s sentence that was hinged on the “shaken child syndrome.”

“At this time, no respected medical physician would fail to conduct a radical, multi-disciplined exploration of all attainable causes of demise as a result of it’s now recognized that many phenomena — together with unintentional quick falls and naturally occurring illness — may cause the identical intracranial circumstances that ‘mimic’ inflicted head damage,” the letter learn.

Authorized questions proceed

Roberson’s attorneys argue that state legislation Article 11.073 permits opinions of wrongful convictions primarily based on adjustments in scientific proof.

A bipartisan group of 86 Texas Home of Representatives members have spoken out in help of Roberson’s clemency request, arguing that Article 11.073 ought to have resulted in a brand new trial.

“Assembly Robert actually introduced residence the tragic actuality of his state of affairs,” state Rep. Lacey Hull stated in a assertion to the advocacy group the Innocence Challenge. “Regardless of his pending execution, he is stuffed with hope and religion and a need to assist others. He nonetheless grieves the lack of his daughter and is hopeful and grateful to everybody serving to his trigger. I’m praying that he sees the justice and new trial that he and Nikki deserve.”

In 2013, the Texas Court docket of Legal Appeals denied Roberson’s request to overturn his conviction, after an area choose argued his case had inadequate proof, in accordance to The Texas Tribune.

The Court docket of Legal Appeals denied Roberson’s most up-to-date petition for a brand new trial in September, dismissing the applying as “an abuse of the writ,” or elevating a declare that ought to have been raised in an earlier petition.

The courtroom declined to deal with the deserves of Roberson’s declare within the dismissal.

Lead detective Brian Wharton, who directed Roberson to be arrested primarily based on the “shaken child” principle and testified in opposition to him within the trial, has additionally since known as for Roberson’s freedom.

“I’ll eternally be haunted by the position I performed in serving to the State put this harmless man on demise row,” he stated in a letter in help. “Robert’s case will eternally be a burden on my coronary heart and soul. However it isn’t too late for Texas to alter course and cease his execution. I sincerely hope that Governor Abbott and the Board will step in to take action.”

Since 1992, greater than 30 folks have been exonerated after being wrongfully convicted below the shaken child speculation, in response to the Nationwide Registry of Exonerations.

ABC Information has reached out to Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles for additional remark.