Robert Roberson, whom prosecutors accused of violently shaking his daughter Nikki and causing fatal injuries, is scheduled to die by lethal injection Oct. 16. He has consistently maintained his innocence.
In two motions filed Thursday, Roberson's attorneys urged the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals to stay the execution and allow judicial review of pending appeals. They also requested oral argument to present what they call evidence that "completely debunks the notion that Nikki's death was a homicide."
Since the TCCA last reviewed Roberson's innocence claims — and denied relief — scientific consensus around shaken baby syndrome has shifted dramatically, his attorneys said. They argued the reasons to doubt his guilt are now "overwhelming."
"Robert is way overdue a finding of actual innocence, but all we are asking for is a new trial, and a new trial that is not crippled with junk science, a lot of other false testimony," Gretchen Sween, who represents Roberson, told Law360 on Friday.
A dominant belief among the medical community at the time Roberson was accused, the SBS theory focuses on three internal head conditions: bleeding outside the brain, known as subdural hematoma; cerebral edema, or brain swelling; and retinal hemorrhages, or bleeding in the eyes.
Roberson was arrested shortly after Nikki was removed from life support on Feb. 1, 2002. Dr. Janet Squires, a child abuse pediatrician, diagnosed SBS based on those three indicators.
Roberson denied harming Nikki, saying she had been ill with a high fever and had fallen from her bed. Nonetheless, he was convicted of capital murder in 2003. The TCCA affirmed the conviction in 2007. Since 2016, he has challenged the SBS diagnosis as outdated and unsupported by modern science to make the case for his innocence.
In years of state habeas litigation, his legal team has repeatedly argued SBS lacks reliable, evidence-based support. In 2009, the medical community began using the term "abusive head trauma," reflecting the evolving understanding of such injuries.
In their stay motion, Roberson's attorneys said multiple experts — including forensic pathologists, a biomechanical engineer, a medical toxicologist and a pediatric radiologist — have concluded Nikki may have died from an accidental fall compounded by possible pneumonia, not intentional trauma.
They also pointed to the TCCA's October 2024 ruling in Ex Parte Roark, which vacated the conviction of Andrew Roark, another parent convicted based on an SBS diagnosis by the same doctor, Squires. The court granted Roark a new trial, finding that the science used to convict him in 2000 had since evolved.
Roberson's lawyers said his case, like Roark's, involves "discredited science" and relies on the same statute — Article 11.073 of the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure — known as the state's "junk science law."
His case has drawn national attention over the past year as lawmakers moved to scrutinize SBS-based convictions under that statute, which allows courts to revisit verdicts that rested on now-discredited scientific claims.
According to the National Registry of Exonerations, at least 41 parents and caregivers across 21 jurisdictions have been exonerated after being wrongfully convicted based on the shaken baby hypothesis — including Roark.
"To date, no court has considered the new evidence showing how Nikki died of pneumonia and the other proof that Mr. Roberson is innocent of any crime," the attorneys said in the motion. "If Mr. Roberson's execution proceeds before that can be accomplished, an unspeakable miscarriage of justice will ensue."
The Texas attorney general's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday.
Roberson is represented by Gretchen Sween, as well as Vanessa Potkin and Jane Pucher of The Innocence Project and Donald P. Salzman of Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom LLP.
The state is represented by Ellen Stewart-Klein of the Texas Office of the Attorney General.
The case is The State of Texas v. Robert Leslie Roberson III, case number 26162-A, in the 3rd District Court of Anderson County, Texas. The appeal is Ex Parte Robert Leslie Roberson III, case number WR-63,081-03, in the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals.
--Editing by Janice Carter Brown.
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