Judge points dramatic Eleventh-hour delay in execution of Texas father in ‘shaken baby syndrome’ case | EUROtoday

A decide in Travis County, Texas, has granted a short lived restraining order stopping the execution of Robert Roberson, an autistic father on the middle of a controversial “shaken baby syndrome” case.

It’s not clear how lengthy the execution – on account of be carried out at 7pm est on Thursday – will probably be stayed. The state is interesting the ruling.

Roberson, 57, is ready to be executed on the Huntsville Unit in Huntsville, Texas for the 2002 demise of his two-year-old daughter Nikki Curtis.

The resolution follows a vote from the Texas House of Representatives Committee on Criminal Jurisprudence to subpoena Roberson for a listening to on October 21, an unprecedented effort to delay the execution.

Roberson could be the primary particular person to ever be executed in reference to the syndrome, which has been broadly discredited by scientists.

Prosecutors preserve that Roberson “brutally murdered his own child” by shaking and placing her, leading to blunt-force trauma, court docket information present.

But a refrain of attorneys, medical specialists and state legislators rejected that place, as a substitute claiming that Nikki died from a mixture of extreme undiagnosed persistent viral pneumonia compounded by a secondary acute bacterial pneumonia that progressed to sepsis.

“In other words, there was no homicide,” a gaggle of medical professionals wrote to the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles, which voted towards granting Roberson clemency on Wednesday. “Mr Roberson should not have been convicted, let alone convicted and sentenced to death.” Governor Greg Abbott has the facility to concern a 30-day reprieve.

The Independent has reached out to Abbott’s workplace for remark. The parole board’s vote got here throughout a listening to within the Texas House of Representatives on the case, which included testimony from medical specialists, Roberson’s lead legal professional, and Anderson County District Attorney Allyson Mitchell, who set Roberson’s execution date.

In a heated trade with a legislator, considered on-line by The IndependentMitchell declined to say whether or not she was 100 per cent sure Roberson murdered his little one and mentioned she must evaluate the trial transcript earlier than answering sure questions in regards to the case. She admitted that the felony justice system typically fails, however mentioned she trusted the method in Roberson’s case.

Republican Representative Brian Harrison checked Mitchell. “To be clear, you trust in the process that one moment ago you admit sometimes does fail,” he mentioned.

Following the parole board’s vote, Roberson’s attorneys filed a petition to remain the execution with the US Supreme Court, asking the judges to think about whether or not the Texas felony appeals court docket denied him due course of by refusing to think about new scientific and medical proof of his innocence. The judges declined to intervene.

Days earlier than his daughter’s demise, Roberson took Nikki to the emergency room in Palestine, Texas as she’d been affected by a respiratory an infection, diarrhea and vomiting. A physician prescribed Phenergan and Roberson took Nikki house. The subsequent day, she developed a 104-degree fever and was given one other dose of the treatment mixed with codeine, court docket information state.

The Federal Drug Administration now not recommends the mix to youngsters on account of dangers of induced respiratory difficulties and demise. Nikki had an extended historical past of persistent well being circumstances, together with respiratory apnea, court docket information state.

Roberson later left the hospital together with his daughter, took her house and put her to mattress.

The following morning, he mentioned he awoke to an odd cry and located Nikki on the ground on the foot of the mattress. He mentioned he comforted her and the 2 fell again asleep, court docket filings state. When he awoke later that morning, he mentioned Nikki was unconscious with blue lips. He claims he tried to revive her and rushed her to the emergency room, however she already had indicators of mind harm, together with mounted and dilated eyes.

She was transported to the Children’s Medical Center in Dallas, the place she died from her accidents on February 1, 2002.

A pediatrician decided that abuse had performed an element within the lady’s demise, after discovering indicators on her physique sometimes related to “shaken baby syndrome”, which embody subdural hematoma, mind swelling and retinal hemorrhages. At the time, the medical neighborhood believed that the signs meant a toddler had been violently shaken, and probably struck towards a blunt floor. It’s now believed that different medical issues can lead to the identical signs.

The health worker dominated Nikki’s demise a murder. Medical and regulation enforcement professionals didn’t additional examine the incident or think about her prescribed drugs and prior sicknesses, court docket information element. No one else was with Nikki on the time of her demise, and Roberson had sole custody.

Nikki’s mom was homeless and hooked on medicine. Child Protective Services took her at beginning, lengthy earlier than Roberson was recognized because the lady’s father. She’d been with Roberson for lower than a 12 months.

Authorities charged Roberson with capital homicide the day after she died. He was convicted the next 12 months.

In 2013, Texas enacted Article 11.073, dubbed the “junk science statute” enabling the evaluate of wrongful convictions primarily based on junk science. The regulation was the topic of a nine-day evidentiary listening to in March 2021 for Roberson’s case. The following 12 months, the convicting court docket really useful towards granting aid.

Lawmakers and Roberson’s attorneys say the regulation has not since been utilized in his case.

Last week, the Texas appeals court docket dominated {that a} Dallas man, who had been sentenced to 35 years in jail utilizing the discredited science, deserved a brand new trial, claiming a jury wouldn’t convict him right now with the identical info. Roberson’s prosecutors argued that the Dallas man’s case was completely different as a result of the one proof of any damage got here from alleged shaking by the defendant.

On Wednesday, the appeals court docket denied an emergency movement and briefs associated to Roberson on procedural grounds.

Brian Wharton, a former lead detective tasked with prosecuting Roberson, informed The Independent he discovered him in a stoic state on the hospital, not appearing as he thought a distraught father ought to. Roberson was recognized with autism in 2018, which Wharton now believes contributed to his demeanor.

It seemed to be an easy case, Wharton mentioned. His doubts started to emerge throughout Roberson’s trial. He didn’t imagine the protection was as much as par, and suspected the jury had been tainted after the district legal professional launched little one sexual assault costs that have been later dropped.

After Roberson was sentenced to demise, Wharton hoped the ruling could be overturned in appeals. He routinely checked for updates within the case.

“I was, in my own naive way, confident that the system that I was part of would check itself, and clearly it has made no effort to do so in the intervening years,” Wharton mentioned in a cellphone interview. He now not thinks the science used to cost Roberson is credible.

He left regulation enforcement in 2006 and is now a reverend in Onalaska, Texas.

When requested how he’d really feel if Roberson is executed, he responded: “I’m so mad I could spit nails.

“Oh gosh, the grief. This is the deepest part of my shame. I visit him now and I don’t remember seeing him then the way I see him now. He is a kind and gentle man, a gracious man, a joyful man, a hopeful man.

“There is no kind of meanness in him. There will be this tremendous grief that I had a hand in killing something so beautiful.”