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Robert Roberson was calm and hopeful as he contemplated his mortality and whether he could again avoid becoming the first person in America to be executed for a murder conviction tied to a diagnosis of shaken baby syndrome.
Days before his scheduled Oct. 16 execution, Roberson maintained his innocence in the 2002 death of his 2-year-old daughter, Nikki Curtis, in the East Texas town of Palestine. A group of Texas lawmakers who say he is innocent had prepared to execute him by lethal injection nearly a year ago, granting Roberson an extraordinary last-minute court reprieve while he waited outside the death chamber in Huntsville.
Roberson said he is putting his hopes for a stay of another execution in the hands of his lawyers, his supporters and God,
“I’m not going to stress and stress about things because I know God has it, you know. He’s in control. No matter what happens, God is in control, and he has the final say, you know,” Roberson, 58, told The Associated Press last week while sitting behind a glass partition in the visiting area of the Polunsky Unit. livingstonWhere Texas’s male death row inmates are housed.
During the hour-long interview, Roberson said he thinks about his daughter every day and what kind of life she might be living today.
Prosecutors at Roberson’s 2003 trial argued that he hit his daughter and shook her violently, causing severe head injuries and that she died from injuries related to shaken baby syndrome. Roberson’s lawyers and some medical experts say her daughter died not from abuse but from complications related to pneumonia. He says his conviction was based on flawed and now outdated scientific evidence.
The diagnosis of shaken baby syndrome refers to a serious brain injury that occurs when a baby’s head is hit by a shaking or other violent impact, such as being slammed against a wall or thrown to the floor.
Roberson’s lawyers have argued that his undiagnosed autism helped convict him because authorities and medical personnel felt he did not act like concerned parents because his flat affect was seen as a sign of guilt.
last minute stay on hanging
Last year, Roberson was on the verge of being executed when last-minute legal maneuvering on the night of his scheduled execution, including the unprecedented intervention of a bipartisan group of Texas lawmakers, prevented his lethal injection. In July, a judge set a new execution date, Roberson’s third.
During his interview with the AP, Roberson often did not hold eye contact and repeated words or phrases — behavior that experts say is linked to autism.
“They assumed (guilt) because of the way I was acting, you know. And I didn’t know I was autistic, you know, until years and years later, you know,” said Roberson, who was not diagnosed with autism until 2018.
Roberson’s supporters and his legal team are again holding rallies and making demands at state and federal appeals courts and the Texas government. greg abbott To stop his execution. His supporters include both liberal and ultraconservative lawmakers, Texas GOP megadonor and conservative activist Doug Deason, bestselling author John Grisham and Brian Wharton, the former police detective who helped build the case against him.
“The whole world is watching. Texas, don’t kill this innocent man,” Wharton said during a rally Saturday outside the Texas Capitol building in Austin.
The Attorney General and others insist Nikki died as a result of child abuse
Texas Attorney General’s Office ken paxtonAlso some medical experts and other members of Nikki’s family say that the girl’s death was caused by child abuse and that Roberson had a history of beating his daughter.
Nikki’s half-brother Matthew Bowman told reporters in July, “It’s taken a long time. … In my opinion he did it, 100%.” Bowman declined to speak to the AP.
Abbott’s office did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment. Abbott has the power to give a one-time relief of 30 days.
Roberson said he never hurt his daughter and was working to turn his life around and care for Nikki after spending time in prison for theft and check passing.
“I never shook her or hit her,” Roberson said, adding that he never disciplined his daughter “since she was very young.”
Shaken baby syndrome has come under scrutiny in recent years as some lawyers and medical experts have argued that the diagnosis has unfairly sent people to prison. Prosecutors and the medical society say it remains legal.
“It’s no longer a mystery what happened to Nikki. It wasn’t concussion. It was her chronic, serious health condition,” Gretchen Sween, one of Roberson’s attorneys, said at Saturday’s rally. “No crime was committed.”
But in a September 26 op-ed in The Dallas Morning News, three pediatricians, including two from Yale School of Medicine, said they reviewed the case and “are confident that Nikki was a victim of child abuse.”
Roberson says he’s optimistic he’ll get a chance to prove his innocence
Roberson was arrested after he took Nikki to the hospital after she fainted after falling from her bed. He said he had never heard of shaken baby syndrome.
Roberson said, “It was so bad to lose my little girl. And then when they accused me of it, I couldn’t believe it.”
In a press release issued after Roberson’s execution was delayed last year, as well as in recent court filings, Paxton’s office has stressed that “this was not just a case involving child shaking, but it also involved a child who was beaten and struck multiple times over the head.” Paxton’s office said the jury “did not convict Roberson on the basis of ‘shaken baby syndrome’.”
Yet Terre Compton, one of the jurors who convicted Roberson, told lawmakers last year that, “Everything that was presented to us was about shaken baby syndrome. Our decision was based on that.”
Grisham, who is writing a book about the case, said that Roberson’s trial was “grossly unfair” because his autism led people to believe he was guilty and his defense attorneys told jurors it was a case of shaken baby syndrome.
Roberson said he is optimistic that one day he will get a chance to prove his innocence in a new trial.
“I’m not afraid to die, but I’m not ready to die, you know. I’d like to believe that God has a lot more to do and do for me, you know,” Roberson said.
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