Shocking new evidence suggests that a Texas man set to be executed in a matter of days may be innocent.
Robert Roberson, 57, was convicted in 2003 of murdering his two-year-old daughter, Nikki, by shaking her so hard that she caused irreversible brain damage and death from shaken baby syndrome, also known as abusive head trauma.
His execution is scheduled for October 17.
But her lawyers have presented new evidence showing that doctors may have misdiagnosed the cause of the young woman’s death, while questioning whether shaken baby syndrome even exists.
A bipartisan majority of 86 Texas lawmakers and the state Board of Pardons and Paroles have now recommended clemency, although the final decision rests with Texas Governor Greg Abbott.
Robert Roberson, 57, will be executed on October 17 for murdering his two-year-old daughter in 2002.
Prosecutors argued that he shook his daughter, Nikki, so hard that it caused irreversible brain damage and death from shaken baby syndrome, also known as abusive head trauma.
Prosecutors have argued that Nikki’s death in 2002 was consistent with shaken baby syndrome, pointing to the diagnostic “triad” of intracranial hemorrhage, swelling of the brain and bleeding behind the retinas.
They have rejected Roberson’s claim that his young daughter simply fell out of bed the night before and he found her unconscious, limp and blue.
Instead, medical staff at a Palestinian hospital believed Nikki’s injuries (including bruises on her face, a blow to the back of her head, and bleeding outside her brain) were caused by abuse and alerted police to the scene. . according to the Dallas Morning News.
But Nikki was chronically ill and suffered a high fever in the days before her death. argue the Innocence Project lawyers.
He had the first of many infections that proved resistant to antibiotics within days of his birth, including a chronic ear infection that persisted even after tubes were surgically implanted.
The young woman also had a history of unexplained “respiratory apnea” which caused her to suddenly stop breathing, collapse and turn blue.
Then, just a week after her death, Nikki had been vomiting, coughing and having diarrhea, Roberson’s lawyers said.
When those symptoms continued for five days straight, Roberson and her mother took Nikki to a local emergency room, where a doctor prescribed Phenergan, a drug that now carries a Food and Drug Administration warning against prescribing it to children. Nikki’s age and condition. .
Still, his condition continued to worsen with his temperature rising to around 104 degrees Fahrenheit, so another doctor prescribed him more Phenergan in a cough syrup with codeine, an opioid now restricted to children under 18 due to its risks of causing respiratory problems. difficulty and death.
Nikki’s toxicology report even showed lethal levels of Phenergan in her system at the time of her death, defense attorneys say.
Roberson has maintained his innocence in his daughter’s death during the more than two decades he has languished on death row.
Roberson has maintained his innocence in his daughter’s death during the more than two decades he has languished on death row, and on August 1, 2024, his attorneys requested that the Anderson County District Court reopen his case.
The filing states that new medical and scientific evidence shows that Nikki died of severe viral and bacterial pneumonia that progressed to sepsis and then septic shock.
It says Dr. Francis Green, an expert in lung pathology with more than 46 years of experience, reviewed Nikki’s medical history and her lung tissue under a microscope.
He discovered that his lungs were infected with two different, virulent types of pneumonia, which clogged his lungs, deprived his brain of oxygen and ultimately led to death, Green wrote in a report.
The pneumonia began many days or weeks before his final hospitalization, he added.
Dr. Keenan Bora also concluded that Nikki’s post-mortem toxicology report shows that she had dangerously high levels of promethazine in her system, prescribed by two different doctors on two consecutive days, and Dr. Julie Mack concluded that the initial CAT scans of Nikki’s head show only a minor impact site, consistent with Roberson’s story that she fell off a bed and possibly hit her head.
His lawyers won a stay of execution in 2016 when they questioned whether shaken baby syndrome existed.
Roberson’s attorneys have even questioned whether shaken baby syndrome is a real medical diagnosis.
It was first proposed by neurosurgeon Norman Guthkelch in 1971 and has since become accepted medical fact.
But researchers have questioned the hypothesis that shaking a baby can cause such brain damage since the 1980s, with some studies concluding that it cannot biomechanically cause the injuries Guthkelch described. according to USA Today.
A systematic review conducted in 2016 by the Swedish Agency for Health and Social Services Technology Assessment, for example, concluded There is “limited scientific evidence that the triad, and therefore its components, may be associated with traumatic tremors” and there is “insufficient scientific evidence to evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of the triad in identifying traumatic tremors.”
Another study published in Forensic Science International also found that a significant number of patients were misdiagnosed with abusive head trauma, citing other conditions that can cause “clinical and imaging findings commonly associated with HTN.”
Since then, even Dr. Guthkelch himself has expressed doubts about shaken baby syndrome.
In 2011, he told a National Public Radio reporter “He was concerned that coroners and doctors were applying it too often without considering other possible causes of a child’s death or injury.”
The following year, he also questioned his hypothesis in the Houston Journal of Health Law and Policy. saying was concerned about the medical community’s “level of emotion and division over shaken baby syndrome/abuse head trauma” which, he said, “interfered with our commitment to seeking the truth.”
Shortly before he died, Guthkelch also told the Washington Post that he had been struck by the high proportion of shaken baby syndrome diagnoses that could be attributed to natural causes rather than abuse.
“I was absolutely horrified when I came back 20 years later and heard all this nonsense about imprisoning mothers,” he said. said in 2015.
Since then, more than 80 state legislators have written to the Board of Pardons and Paroles in support of his clemency petition citing “voluminous new evidence.”
The legal argument previously worked in 2016, when Roberson was granted a stay of execution after his lawyers claimed his conviction was based on “junk science” and “false, misleading and scientifically invalid” testimony.
However, in 2023, Texas’ highest criminal court decided that questions about the cause of her daughter’s death were not enough to overturn her death sentence and scheduled her execution for October 17. reports the Texas Tribune.
The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals also dismissed both a motion to stay the execution and a final request for relief filed by Roberson’s attorneys earlier this month without reviewing the merits of the claims.
That forced lawyers to file a petition for clemency on September 17.
“Nikki’s death … was not a crime, unless it is a parent’s inability to explain complex medical issues that even trained medical professionals were unable to understand at the time,” they wrote. according to KLTV.
“No physician informed today would presume abuse based on a triad of internal head conditions, as occurred in Robert’s case,” the petition continues.
“But around the time Robert was charged and convicted, conventional medical thinking gave doctors permission to skip consideration of any other factors and presume tremors and inflicted head trauma, an approach that has since been completely rejected as incorrect. “.
The final decision on Roberson’s execution rests with Texas Governor Greg Abbott.
Since then, more than 80 state lawmakers have written to the Board of Pardons and Paroles in support of the clemency petition, citing the “voluminous new evidence” and raising “grave concern” that Texas is preparing to execute Roberson. “for a crime that did not happen.” .’
“It should surprise all Texans that we are rushing toward an execution in the face of this new evidence,” they wrote.
‘Other states see Texas as a leader in both enforcing the rule of law and addressing wrongful convictions.
“We now hope that you will prevent our state from tarnishing that reputation by allowing this execution to take place.”
Still, prosecutors have maintained that the evidence supporting Roberson’s conviction is “clear and convincing” and argue that the science around shaken baby syndrome has not changed as much as the defense claims.
The board can take up to two days before the execution to make its decision, but the final decision will ultimately rest with the governor.