Texas board votes against clemency for man facing execution in shaken baby syndrome case

Author of the article:

Associated Press

Juan A. Lozano

Published Oct 16, 2024  •  Last updated 1 minute ago  •  2 minute read

This undated handout image courtesy of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice shows death row inmate Robert Roberson. Photo by HANDOUT/Texas Department of Criminal Justice/AFP /Getty Images

HOUSTON — The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles on Wednesday denied a request for clemency for a man who this week could be the first person in the U.S. executed for a murder conviction tied to the diagnosis of shaken baby syndrome.

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The parole board voted to not recommend that Robert Roberson’s death sentence be commuted to life in prison or that his execution be delayed.

Gov. Greg Abbott can only grant clemency after receiving a recommendation from the board. Abbott does have the power to grant a one-time 30-day reprieve without a board recommendation.

In his nearly 10 years as governor, Abbott has halted only one imminent execution, in 2018 when he spared the life of Thomas Whitaker.

Roberson, 57, is scheduled to receive a lethal injection Thursday evening for the 2002 killing of his 2-year-old daughter, Nikki Curtis, in the East Texas city of Palestine. Roberson has long proclaimed his innocence.

The parole board’s decision came a day after an East Texas judge on Tuesday denied requests by Roberson’s attorneys to stop his lethal injection by vacating the execution warrant and recusing the judge who had issued the warrant.

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Roberson’s scheduled execution has renewed debate over shaken baby syndrome, which is known in the medical community as abusive head trauma.

His lawyers as well as a bipartisan group of Texas lawmakers, medical experts and others have urged Abbott to stop Roberson’s execution, saying his conviction was based on faulty and now outdated scientific evidence related to shaken baby syndrome. The diagnosis refers to a serious brain injury caused when a child’s head is hurt through shaking or some other violent impact, like being slammed against a wall or thrown on the floor.

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Roberson’s supporters don’t deny that head and other injuries from child abuse are real. But they say doctors misdiagnosed Curtis’ injuries as being related to shaken baby syndrome and that new evidence has shown the girl died not from abuse but from complications related to severe pneumonia.

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The American Academy of Pediatrics, other medical organizations and prosecutors say the diagnosis is valid and that doctors look at all possible things, including any illnesses, when determining if injuries were attributable to shaken baby syndrome.

The Anderson County District Attorney’s Office, which prosecuted Roberson, has said in court documents that after a 2022 hearing to consider the new evidence in the case, a judge rejected the theories that pneumonia and other diseases caused Curtis’ death.

Prosecutors maintain Roberson’s new evidence does not disprove their case that Curtis died from injuries inflicted by her father.

The parole board has recommended clemency in a death row case only six times since the state resumed executions in 1982. In three of those cases — in 1998, 2007 and 2018 — death row inmates had their sentences commuted to life in prison within days of their scheduled executions. In two of the cases — from 2004 and 2009 _ then-Texas Gov. Rick Perry rejected the parole board’s recommendation to commute a death sentence to life in prison and the two prisoners were executed.

In 2019, the parole board recommended a 120-day reprieve for Rodney Reed, just days before his scheduled execution. But the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals stayed Reed’s execution before Abbott could take any action on the board’s recommendation.

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