Robert Roberson, whom advocates say was wrongfully convicted of killing his two-year-old daughter greater than 20 years in the past, is scheduled to be executed in Texas on Thursday amid claims that his conviction was secured with junk science.
Roberson, 57, introduced his daughter Nikki Curtis to hospital in Palestine, Texas, on 31 January 2002. He instructed docs that she was in poor health with fever and had fallen from a mattress.
Curtis was “not respiratory and had a blue coloration to her pores and skin”, court docket paperwork cited by Time mentioned, and was rushed to a different hospital in Dallas, Texas. She was pronounced lifeless and docs suspected abuse, discovering that her accidents have been in step with signs of shaken child syndrome.
The syndrome is a situation by which a child or small youngster is shaken repeatedly, ensuing of their mind hitting the within of their cranium. Medics famous that Roberson was unemotional, additional stoking abuse suspicions, and on 1 February 2002, authorities charged Roberson with capital homicide.
Shaken child syndrome is acknowledged as an actual medical situation by well being specialists. However the American Affiliation of Pediatrics in 2020 mentioned that it had been “misinterpreted” by authorized and well being authorities. US civilian and navy courts have exonerated a minimum of 30 folks in shaken child syndrome circumstances since 1992, CNN reported.
Roberson’s attorneys contend that his case is among the many wrongful convictions associated to questionable shaken child syndrome claims. They insist that his daughter died from double pneumonia that spiraled into sepsis.
They are saying her dire medical situation worsened nonetheless extra when she was given treatment that’s presently thought of improper for youngsters. They contend that hospital workers’s rapid shaken child syndrome willpower – which they primarily based on mind swelling and bleeding in addition to bruises – amounted to misdiagnosis.
Roberson’s impassive comportment was not an indication of culpability however relatively, on account of his autism which was not recognized till 2018, his supporters additionally mentioned. He insisted on his innocence in an interview with CNN.
“It wasn’t against the law dedicated,” Roberson mentioned. “I used to be falsely, wrongly convicted of against the law – they mentioned it was against the law, nevertheless it wasn’t no crime and stuff as a result of I had a sick little woman, you recognize?”
Roberson acquired custody of Curtis two months earlier than her dying. He didn’t know concerning the woman till she was born, CNN mentioned.
Curtis’s maternal grandparents had custody the vast majority of her life, however they in the end agreed that he ought to have custody. Roberson mentioned that he picked up Curtis from her grandparents’ home and introduced her residence.
Roberson mentioned he turned on a film and that they each fell asleep in the identical mattress. However Roberson mentioned he woke after listening to Curtis’s cries and noticed her on the bottom.
There was blood on the woman’s lips and a bruise under her chin, which Roberson cleaned up. Roberson mentioned that he stayed awake a number of hours to verify the toddler was all proper and fell asleep once more. Within the morning, she was not responsive, CNN quoted him as explaining.
“I carried her to the hospital and stuff, you recognize,” Roberson instructed the community. “I didn’t don’t have anything to cover.”
Roberson’s supporters embody the Innocence Challenge, autism advocacy organizations, a bipartisan cohort of greater than 80 lawmakers, in addition to the celebrated authorized novelist John Grisham, CNN notes. Brian Wharton, who was a detective in Palestine, Texas, can be amongst his advocates.
“These two issues are taking part in towards one another – the emotional upheaval of the ER workers alongside the daddy who’s simply there,” Wharton reportedly mentioned. “After which once you add to that this accusation of shaken child syndrome, that affirms for you all of the feelings you had within the ER and makes that flat have an effect on rather more suspect.
“The investigative or the suspicious thoughts takes over and leads the investigation,” Wharton additionally instructed CNN. “Very early on, Robert was the main target of every thing to the exclusion of every other potentialities.”
The US supreme court docket on 2 October declined to listen to Roberson’s petition. Roberson has successfully exhausted his state-level appeals in Texas.
Roberson’s attorneys on Tuesday pushed for his dying warrant to be discovered void, reportedly telling a court docket that the jurist who scheduled this execution lacked correct jurisdiction. However the administrative decide overseeing this continuing disagreed, saying procedures have been adopted, which means the execution stays on schedule, per the Tyler Morning Telegraph.
They’ve additionally requested the Texas pardons and parole board and the Republican governor, Greg Abbott, for clemency. Roberson’s attorneys have petitioned for his sentence to be commuted to a lesser punishment or, that he needs to be given a postponement to permit extra time for litigating appeals.
However the board on Tuesday did not suggest that Abbott grant clemency, Roberson’s attorneys mentioned in a press release. Abbot hardly ever grants clemency petitions.
If the execution proceeds as scheduled, Roberson would be the first particular person on this nation to be executed associated to shaken child syndrome, the Related Press reported.
“It’s not stunning that the prison justice system failed Mr. Roberson so badly. What’s stunning is that, to this point, the system has been unable to right itself – when Texas lawmakers acknowledged the issue with wrongful convictions primarily based on discredited ‘science’ over ten years in the past,” Gretchen Sween, one among Mr Roberson’s attorneys, mentioned in a press release.
“Now we have tried a number of instances to make the most of that legislation. A number of instances now we have been turned away – with out clarification or consideration of the brand new proof. We are going to ask Governor Abbott to subject a 30-day reprieve so we will proceed to pursue Mr. Roberson’s innocence declare,” Sween additionally mentioned. “We pray that Governor Abbott does every thing in his energy to forestall the tragic, irreversible mistake of executing an harmless man.”
The scheduled execution comes within the wake of Missouri’s execution of Marcellus Williams who, like Roberson, maintained his innocence. Williams, who was Black, was convicted of killing a white lady.
His conviction was rooted in two witnesses who have been paid for testifying, in line with The Innocence Challenge. Although St Louis prosecutors acknowledged errors within the case, and that the girl’s husband opposed Williams’s execution, the state’s legal professional normal and governor refused to grant him clemency.
Ed Pilkington contributed reporting
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