Texas Supreme Court halts execution for Robert Roberson

UPDATE | Oct. 17, 11:46 PM  CST |

Huntsville, Texas — The Texas Supreme Court halted Thursday night’s scheduled execution of a man who would have become the first person in the U.S. put to death for a murder conviction tied to a diagnosis of shaken baby syndrome.

The late-night ruling to spare for now the life of Robert Roberson, who was convicted of killing his 2-year-old daughter in 2002, capped a flurry of last-ditch legal challenges and weeks of public pressure from both Republican and Democratic lawmakers who say he is innocent and was convicted based on flawed evidence.

For hours Thursday night, Roberson remained in a prison holding cell a few feet from America's busiest death chamber at the Walls Unit in Hunstville.

"He praised God and thanked supporters,” said Texas Department of Criminal Justice spokesperson Amanda Hernandez, who spoke with Roberson after the court stayed his execution.

One of those staunch supporters is Dr. Phil, who kept updating his social media followers throughout the night. 

"Good news, the execution is halted for now. It's been a roller coaster ride," shared McGraw who then directed followers to swipe to see a copy of the high court's ruling.

"You can see it's one that says things have to be acted upon with laser focus and all due speed. So how long this will hold, I don't know but it does give additional time to maneuver. So, bottom line, the execution has been halted at least for now."

UPDATE | Oct. 17, 9:21 PM  CST |

A Texas court of appeals has vacated the temporary restraining order in the scheduled execution of Robert Roberson. 

The decision came down just hours after another judge granted a request from a Texas House committee for the TRO to delay Roberson's execution so that he could testify next week about his case at a hearing by lawmakers.

The reversal left supporters of Roberson, who was convicted of killing his 2-year-old daughter in 2002, turning to the Texas Supreme Court in what appeared to be a final bid for a last-minute stay. Robertson’s supporters include a coalition of Republicans and Democrats who say Roberson is innocent and was convicted on faulty scientific evidence.

Hours after the original execution time of 6 p.m. local time had passed in Texas, Roberson remained in a prison holding cell a few feet from the death chamber at the Walls Unit in Hunstville.

Gov. Greg Abbott has authority to delay Roberson’s punishment for 30 days. Abbott has halted only one imminent execution in nearly a decade as governor and has not spoken publicly about the case.

The Texas appeals court ruling was one of a flurry of legal decisions in the hours before Roberson’s scheduled lethal injection.

At the same time a state judge in Austin was issuing a temporary restraining order, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to halt the execution, although Justice Sonia Sotomayor — in a 10-page statement about the case — urged Abbott to grant a 30-day delay.

The state’s legal fight to get the execution carried out faced a midnight CDT deadline when the death warrant authorizing Roberson's execution would expire. It was likely, however, the case would need to be resolved well before that since officials must conduct procedures such as attaching intravenous needles and allow time for an injection to take effect and a physician to pronounce him dead.

UPDATE | Oct. 17, 5:37 PM  CST |

Houston — A last-ditch effort to stop Texas from executing an autistic man in a shaken baby case stretched into the final hours Thursday night as one judge granted an extraordinary maneuver by lawmakers to delay the lethal injection while the U.S. Supreme Court cleared the way for it to proceed.

The judge granted a request from a Texas House committee for a temporary restraining order to delay the execution of Robert Roberson so the condemned man could testify next week about his case at a hearing by lawmakers.

Roberson was scheduled Thursday evening to become the first person in the U.S. executed for a murder conviction tied to a diagnosis of shaken baby syndrome. The lawmakers on the committee, both Republicans and Democrats, are part of a diverse coalition who say Roberson is innocent in the 2002 death of his 2-year-old daughter and was convicted on faulty scientific evidence.

The order by state District Judge Jessica Mangrum was expected to be quickly appealed by the Texas Attorney General’s Office to the state's top criminal appeals court, which has previously denied on multiple occasions requests by Roberson to delay his execution.

The order was granted around the same time the U.S. Supreme Court refused to halt the planned execution, though Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote to urge Texas Gov. Greg Abbott to grant a 30-day delay.

Roberson, 57, was condemned for the killing of his daughter, Nikki Curtis, in the East Texas city of Palestine. Roberson has long proclaimed his innocence, backed by some notable Republican lawmakers, Texas GOP megadonor and conservative activist Doug Deason and the lead detective on the case. Roberson's lawyers and some medical experts say his daughter died not from abuse but from complications related to pneumonia.

“He’s an innocent man and we’re very close to killing him for something he did not do,” said Brian Wharton, the lead detective with Palestine police who investigated Curtis’ death.

UPDATE | Oct. 17, 10:32 AM  CST |

Texas — The Texas Committee on Criminal Jurisprudence has subpoenaed death row inmate Robert Roberson to testify before a committee that’s reconsidering the lawfulness of his conviction.

Roberson is scheduled for execution at 6 p.m. on Oct. 17 for the murder of his 2-year-old daughter. But his new hearing is set for October 21. The state’s Department of Criminal Justice hasn’t announced whether Robertson’s execution will be delayed on Thursday, but supporters and Roberson himself are positive. 

“I visited Robert in prison and he is so filled with hope. And we are hopeful someone will step in and save his life,” said Incumbent Rep. Lacey Hull (R-Houston). 

Like Hull, Dr. Phil is one of many advocates for Roberson to be spared, and recently visited him in prison. McGraw asked Roberson about reports that the morning of his daughter's death he was acting "oddly for a parent."

"They said you didn't show normal emotion," said McGraw. 

"I was in shock," described Roberson. "I was sad."

"Did you tell them she had been to the hospital the day before?" McGraw asked.

"I believe I did tell them she had gone to the doctor. But they never checked all her medical records from the time she was born until then, but I did tell them," said Roberson. 

When asked if he has received mental health evaluations since his conviction, Roberson said he was diagnosed with autism. 

McGraw asked Roberson if he ever shook his daughter. 

"Never. Ever," he replied. "I never disciplined her. Never yelled at her. Nothing."

"So, you think a crime was never committed," asked McGraw.

"Yes, sir," said Roberson.

McGraw asked Roberson to take him through the moment he learned his daughter had died. 

"A doctor from Children's Hospital in Dallas called and asked if I had harmed her. And I said, 'no sir I didn't do anything wrong.' I told him what happened. That night or the next night the police were knocking on my door. They took me to jail, and that's when I knew she had died."

"And how did you feel in that moment?" asked McGraw. 

"I was in shock. I couldn't believe it. I was numb," shared Roberson.

A spokesperson for the department said it will consult with the attorney general’s office on the “appropriate next steps.”

The subpoena calls for Roberson to “provide all relevant testimony and information concerning the committee’s inquiry.” The chair can also issue additional subpoenas for relevant testimony. Seven representatives voted in favor of the motion. 

"Every Republican, every Democrat voted for this. It was a unanimous, bi-partisan decision so that we can hear Roberson and get his perspective on the record,” said Rep. Brian Harrison, who filed the motion. "This is a clear instance where unfortunately (and it breaks my heart to talk about this) the criminal justice system in the state of Texas has absolutely failed this individual. And the laws that we in the legislature have passed, that were designed to give relief, and new trials to people like Robert Roberson where the science has changed so much – the science that was used to convict him – I don’t believe a jury would convict him today and neither do massive numbers in the medical community."

Calls to spare Roberson’s life were growing before the committee’s decision Wednesday.

"The lead detective in the case, the man who’s largely responsible for putting him on death row and knows the case better than anybody alive thinks Roberson is innocent. He also doesn’t think a crime ever occurred," shared Harrison. 

While Roberson’s supporters continue to fight to spare his life, their efforts to stop his execution have so far been rejected. On Wednesday, the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles declined to recommend clemency in Roberson’s case after his attorneys requested his death sentence be commuted to a lesser penalty – or that the inmate be granted a 180-day reprieve to allow time for his appeals to be argued in court.

If he’s put to death by lethal injection Thursday evening, Roberson’s attorneys say that would make him the first person in the US executed based on a conviction that relied on an allegation of shaken baby syndrome – a misdiagnosis in Roberson’s case, they argue, and one they say has been discredited.

Without the recommendation of the parole board, GOP Gov. Greg Abbott is limited to issuing a one-time, 30-day reprieve.

“We urge Governor Abbott to grant a reprieve of 30 days,” Roberson’s attorney, Gretchen Sween said Wednesday, “to allow litigation to continue and have a court hear the overwhelming new medical and scientific evidence that shows Robert Roberson’s chronically ill, two-year-old daughter, Nikki, died of natural and accidental causes, not abuse.”

While child abuse pediatricians remain firm on the validity of the shaken baby syndrome diagnosis, Roberson’s attorneys say there is ample evidence his daughter, Nikki Curtis, did not die of child abuse.

At the time of her death, she had double pneumonia that had progressed to sepsis, and she had been prescribed two medications now seen as inappropriate for children that would have further hindered her ability to breathe, they argue, citing medical experts. Additionally, she had fallen off a bed and was particularly vulnerable in her sickly condition, Roberson’s attorneys say.

Other factors, too, contributed to his conviction, they argue. Doctors treating Nikki “presumed” abuse based on her symptoms and common thinking at the time of her death without exploring her recent medical history, the inmate’s attorneys claim. His behavior in the emergency room – viewed as uncaring by doctors, nurses and the police, who believed it a sign of his guilt – was a manifestation of autism spectrum disorder, which went undiagnosed until 2018.

“Very early on, Robert was the focus of everything to the exclusion of any other possibilities,” said Brian Wharton, the former Palestine, Texas, detective who led what he now believes was a too-narrowly focused investigation into Nikki’s death. He has since joined Roberson’s supporters in fighting to spare his life.

Roberson’s innocence claim underscores an inherent risk of capital punishment: a potentially innocent person could be put to death. At least 200 people – 18 in Texas – have been exonerated since 1973 after being convicted and sentenced to die, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.

"The state of Texas should not be executing somebody when it’s still an open question as to whether any crime happened," said Harrison. 

The appeals court denied the inmate’s latest appeal on Wednesday. That court last week ordered a new trial for a man sentenced to 35 years in prison for his conviction of injury to a child in a case that also relied on a shaken baby argument.

Roberson’s attorneys have filed a request for a stay of execution with the US Supreme Court, arguing his due process rights were violated when the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals declined to consider additional evidence the inmate says would support his innocence claim.

Texas urged the Supreme Court in a filing Wednesday evening to deny Roberson’s emergency appeal, claiming that the arguments he has raised are “unworthy of the court’s attention.”

The courts, Texas officials said, “gave Roberson the means and the opportunity to make claims, marshal evidence in support of his cause, and address the adverse evidence adduced against him.” Just because Roberson was denied, the state officials told the Supreme Court, “does not mean that he was denied notice or an opportunity to be heard.”

“The record shows that the state habeas proceedings adequately complied with due process,” Texas told the Supreme Court in its brief.

State legislators voice support

In the meantime, Roberson’s many supporters are taking their own steps to call attention to his case in hopes of pressing the state into halting the execution.

The Texas Committee on Criminal Jurisprudence is holding a hearing Wednesday where it will hear testimony “related to capital punishment” and a Texas law – commonly referred to as the “junk science writ” – which opened a path for someone to challenge their conviction if there is new scientific evidence unavailable at the time of their trial.

While Roberson’s name is not mentioned in a notice about the hearing, his advocates say he should benefit from this law – and a member of the committee, Rep. Jeff Leach, a Republican from Collins County, told reporters Tuesday the hearing would “shine a light” on Roberson’s case “for all 31 million Texans to hear and watch and to see.”

“And we’re hopeful that by Thursday evening, we’re able to secure that pause button in this case,” said Leach, who supports the death penalty but has emerged as a key critic of its administration in cases featuring wrongful conviction claims.

The committee – made up of both Republicans and Democrats – has also urged the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals to halt the execution, citing the “junk science” law. Committee members want Roberson to be granted a stay while lawmakers consider amendments to the “junk science” law, they wrote in a letter brief filed before the court.

“It is beyond dispute that medical evidence presented at Mr. Roberson’s trial in 2003 is inconsistent with modern scientific principles,” the lawmakers wrote.

“We believe it would be a stain on the conscience of the State of Texas for an execution to proceed while efforts are underway to remedy deficiencies in how the law was applied to this case.”

A bipartisan group of more than 80 Texas legislators has supported Roberson’s case, and his request for clemency. Rep. Joe Moody, chair of the criminal jurisprudence committee, said on X last week the state needed to “pump the brakes before this stains Texas justice for generations.”

The author John Grisham – a board member of the Innocence Project, which has backed Roberson’s claim – also called for mercy Tuesday in an op-ed for the Washington Post.

“The evidence is assembled and available to the Texas authorities, but no one with the power to stop Roberson’s execution is paying attention,” Grisham wrote. “The courts slammed all the doors on the basis of technicalities, and even politicians’ pleas have been ignored.”

Diagnosis focus of courtroom debate

Roberson’s attorneys are not disputing babies can and do die from being shaken. But they contend more benign explanations, including illness, can mimic the symptoms of shaking, and those alternative explanations should be ruled out before a medical expert testifies with certainty that the cause of death was abuse.

Shaken baby syndrome is accepted as a valid diagnosis by the American Academy of Pediatrics and supported by child abuse pediatricians who spoke with CNN. The condition, first described in the mid-1970s, has for the past 15 or so years been considered a type of “abusive head trauma” – a broader term used to reflect actions other than shaking, like an impact to a child’s head.

Criminal defense lawyers also have oversimplified how doctors diagnose abusive head trauma, child abuse pediatricians say, noting many factors are considered to determine it.

“The conclusion is simply (Nikki) was a victim of abusive head trauma. Unequivocally,” Dr. Sandeep Narang, a child abuse pediatrician and a lawyer, told CNN after he said he was asked by a supporter of Roberson’s defense to review trial testimony in the case.

Still, the diagnosis has been the focus of debates in courtrooms across the country. Since 1992, courts in at least 17 states and the US Army have exonerated 32 people convicted in shaken baby syndrome cases, according to the National Registry of Exonerations.

Child abuse pediatricians like Dr. Antoinette Laskey, chair of the American Academy of Pediatrics’ Council on Child Abuse and Neglect, dispute these statistics. She pointed to a 2021 paper that found just 3% of all convictions in shaken baby syndrome cases between 2008 and 2018 were overturned, and only 1% of them were overturned because of medical evidence.

“I don’t know what to say about the legal controversy,” Laskey told CNN of the courtroom debate (She did not speak to Roberson’s case). “This is real, it affects children, it affects families … I want to help children; I don’t want to diagnose abuse: That’s a bad day.”

Last week, however, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals ordered a new trial for a man sentenced to 35 years in prison for his conviction of injury to a child in a case that also relied on a shaken baby syndrome argument. In its argument, the court wrote “scientific knowledge has evolved regarding SBS.”

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