One Day to Stop the Execution of Robert Roberson
Scheduled to be executed tomorrow in Texas, Roberson was wrongly convicted under the now-debunked shaken baby syndrome hypothesis
On July 1, Texas set Robert Roberson’s execution for Oct. 17, despite new evidence that he is an innocent man wrongly convicted under the now-debunked shaken baby syndrome (SBS) hypothesis. Roberson would be the first person in the U.S. executed based on the discredited SBS hypothesis unless the courts or Texas Governor Greg Abbott (R) intervenes.
Roberson’s case is rife with unscientific evidence, inaccurate and misleading medical testimony. In 2002, Roberson’s two-year old, chronically ill daughter, Nikki, was sick with a high fever and suffered a short fall from bed. Hospital staff did not know Roberson had autism and judged his response to his daughter’s grave condition as lacking emotion. Roberson was prosecuted, convicted, and sentenced to death for Nikki’s death.
The prosecution based its case against Roberson on the hypothesis that Nikki's death was caused by Shaken Baby Syndrome, a condition that was never scientifically validated and the premises of which have been discredited by actual science. To date at least 32 parents and caregivers in 18 states have been exonerated after being wrongfully convicted under the shaken baby hypothesis.
On Aug. 1, 2024, Mr. Roberson’s attorneys requested the state district court in Anderson County to reopen his case of actual innocence. 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. There was no homicide. Three experts from a range of medical specialties can now explain exactly how Nikki died.
Yet the trial court ignored new evidence from six expert witnesses and rubber-stamped the prosecution’s 17-page proposed findings of fact and conclusions of law, which relied almost exclusively on the outdated scientific evidence introduced at the 2003 trial and conducted when the medical establishment accepted unquestioningly that the triad of intracranial conditions observed in Nikki could be used to “diagnose” shaking and abuse.
“I was a police officer in Palestine, Texas for 14 years and the lead detective on the case where Robert Roberson was accused of shaking his two-year-old daughter, Nikki, to death,” said Brian Wharton, an ordained elder in the United Methodist Church, who was the assistant chief of the Palestine Police Department when he retired in 2006. “I testified for the prosecution and helped send Mr. Roberson to death row in 2003. For over 20 years, I have thought that something went very wrong in Mr. Roberson’s case and feared that justice was not served. I have come to believe that Nikki died of accidental and natural causes and that there was no crime. I am convinced that Mr. Roberson is innocent.”
We have one day left to save Roberson from an unjust, state-sponsored murder.
Here's what you can do to help right a wrong, both for Roberson and the young life of his daughter.
- Call Gov. Abbott at 361-264-9653
- Sign the petition from Death Penalty Action -->>Stop the Execution of Robert Roberson in Texas
- Share Mr. Roberson’s case on all social media channels using the social media toolkit from The Innocence Project
- Use your voice — create an Instagram/Twitter/Facebook post, reel, or TikTok to share the background of Mr. Roberson’s case, the reasons he’s innocent, and all the missteps in this miscarriage of justice, and urge your followers to sign our petition.
Time is running out. Don't let tomorrow come where you're left saying you didn't do your part to see a horrible injustice reversed.
