Texas’ highest felony courtroom has halted the execution of Robert Roberson, who had been scheduled to die through deadly injection subsequent week, after being convicted of killing his 2-year-old daughter Nikki Curtis.
Roberson’s was the newest case from Texas to supply a small explosion of stories protection, certainly one of many that includes celebrities and lawmakers arguing that the state was about to execute an harmless individual. His execution was certainly one of eight scheduled throughout the nation in October, a part of a increase in executions this yr.
Within the coming months, Roberson’s largest claims — that he was wrongly convicted based mostly on defective scientific testimony — shall be fought over within the district courtroom the place he was sentenced to demise, in Palestine, Texas.
I’ve been masking Roberson’s case for The Marshall Mission for greater than two years, and have boiled down crucial themes within the case, together with what they inform us concerning the demise penalty in America immediately.
1. His guilt rests on the shaky science of “shaken child syndrome.”
Roberson was charged with homicide in 2002 after he introduced Nikki to an emergency room in Palestine, Texas. She was unresponsive and turning blue. He thought she’d fallen away from bed, however after she died, a pediatrician and pathologist each instructed police she had been shaken.
This was the heyday of billboards and tv advertisements warning individuals to “by no means, ever shake a child.” On the time, there was a dawning consciousness of the hazard of shaking, and docs recognized the syndrome based mostly on indicators like mind swelling and bleeding in key places.
However within the years since Roberson’s 2003 trial, many docs determined the identical signs might stem from unintentional falls and different causes. A brand new group of medical consultants thinks Nikki really died from a tragic mixture of pneumonia, drug issues, and a fall from her mattress. Roberson’s attorneys used this evaluation to ask the Texas Court docket of Legal Appeals for a keep of execution. He would have been the primary individual executed within the U.S. based mostly on a homicide conviction tied to a “shaken child syndrome” analysis.
That is certainly one of numerous instances in recent times the place new science casts doubt on previous convictions. However the demise penalty makes the issue much less fixable, as a result of somebody despatched to jail for all times can nonetheless be freed, however you possibly can’t convey somebody again from the lifeless.
2. Autism performed a surprisingly massive position within the case.
Autism advocates are amongst Roberson’s loudest supporters, arguing his case exhibits how the police and courts can fail autistic individuals. When Roberson first arrived on the hospital, he didn’t act distraught in the way in which nurses and docs had come to count on of fearful dad and mom. Afterward, his habits — like pausing to make a sandwich whereas taking police round his home — appeared suspicious to detectives.
However years later, psychologists recognized him with autism, and argued that this might clarify a lot of his habits. “At trial, the prosecution highlighted Roberson’s flat have an effect on, a symptom of his autism,” wrote psychologist Natalie Montfort within the Houston Chronicle final yr. “Jurors had been inspired to evaluate him as a callous liar.” However his “outward look masked intense misery that he couldn’t specific.”
A number of years in the past, the lead detective within the case, Brian Wharton, admitted that he had misinterpreted Roberson’s habits and joined these arguing for his innocence.
3. Roberson was recognized as a “psychopath” utilizing a controversial take a look at.
Psychologist Thomas Allen testified that Roberson was a “psychopath” and named Adolf Hitler and Ted Bundy as different, extra well-known examples with the situation, as if to position the daddy in a pantheon of Twentieth-century villains.
Allen had relied on a well-known and controversial “psychopathy guidelines” that has performed some position in at the least a dozen demise sentences since 1998, incomes complaints of misuse from one other psychologist who created the guidelines. Allen additionally relied on accusations in opposition to Roberson of sexual assault that by no means led to prosecution, attributable to a scarcity of proof.
Allen instructed me the “psychopath” label possible performed a minor position within the jury’s option to ship Roberson to demise row, since he’d already been convicted of killing his toddler. However Roberson’s attorneys have argued, “It’s unimaginable to take away the tough stain from the jury field as soon as a psychologist throws the label ‘psychopath’ on the defendant.”
4. He’s earned help from conservative lawmakers and activists.
Roberson was additionally almost executed a yr in the past. Like different demise row prisoners, he was narrowly spared amid a political circus. Dr. Phil McGraw confirmed up on the Texas Capitol to argue for Roberson’s innocence final yr, lower than every week earlier than he appeared at Donald Trump’s presidential marketing campaign rally at Madison Sq. Backyard.
That odd timing displays rising ambivalence concerning the demise penalty in conservative circles. Final yr, a bipartisan group of Texas lawmakers turned to a novel technique to cease Roberson’s execution: They known as upon him to testify in individual on the capitol constructing in Austin, after he was scheduled to die. This in the end led to a sequence of difficult tussles between all three branches of the Texas authorities. Whereas Roberson by no means made it to the capitol, his execution was stayed by the Texas Supreme Court docket.
This time, there was much less political theater, since Roberson was saved by the Texas Court docket of Legal Appeals. Though they don’t seem to be formally swayed by politics, the courtroom’s judges are all elected to their seats. A number of acquired help of their Republican major campaigns from Texas Legal professional Normal Ken Paxton, the main public determine pushing for Roberson’s execution.
Which will sound like a possible battle of curiosity, but it surely’s par for the course in lots of states with elected judges. Earlier than the courtroom issued a keep, Roberson’s conservative supporters publicly signaled to these judges that it was politically protected for them to cease the execution.
5. A podcast bombshell
Final week, Roberson acquired a brand new megaphone for his innocence claims: An NBC Information podcast sequence hosted by Lester Holt. Within the first episode, Holt revealed a battle of curiosity which will have marred Roberson’s 2003 trial.
When Nikki was nonetheless on life help, Anderson County Decide Bascom Bentley allegedly directed the hospital to defer choices on her care to her maternal grandparents, relatively than Roberson, her father. (Her mom has not been concerned within the case publicly.) “Matter of truth, Decide Bentley instructed ’em we had been the dad and mom,” grandfather Larry Gene Bowman instructed NBC Information. Roberson had custody of his daughter on the time, however the grandparents selected to disconnect Nikki from life help.
Bentley went on to preside over Roberson’s capital homicide trial. In a new submitting to the Court docket of Legal Appeals on Oct. 6, Roberson’s attorneys argue that Bentley violated Roberson’s parental rights and was clearly biased in opposition to the daddy when he oversaw his trial. A few of Nikki’s kin, together with her half-brother Matthew Bowman, help Roberson’s execution.
It could sound stunning that such essential particulars would emerge so near an execution. Nevertheless it’s widespread, and that could be as a result of the demise penalty can’t be undone, so a sure panicked, no-stone-unturned ambiance units in amongst attorneys, journalists and lawmakers. As a result of all felony instances contain human beings, they’re prone to human error, so after a decade or two, there’s usually one thing troubling ready to be dug up.
