HUNTSVILLE, Texas (AP) – The Texas Supreme Court ruled Thursday night that the death penalty scheduled for Thursday night for a man who would have been the first in the United States for a murder conviction related to a shaken baby syndrome diagnosis. The execution was suspended.
The late-night ruling to temporarily spare the life of Robert Roberson, who was convicted of killing his 2-year-old daughter in 2002, comes after a series of last-minute legal challenges and a series of legislative challenges from both Republican and Democratic lawmakers. The move ended weeks of public pressure. They claim he is innocent and was sent to death row based on flawed science.
In the hours leading up to his sentencing, Roberson was held in a prison cell just feet from the nation’s busiest death chamber in the Walls Ward in Hunstville, awaiting certainty whether he would be put to death by lethal injection. I was waiting for it to happen.
“He was shocked, to say the least,” said Amanda Hernandez, a spokeswoman for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, who spoke with Roberson after the court blocked his execution. “He praised God and thanked his supporters. And that’s pretty much what he wanted to say.”
He said Mr. Roberson would be returned to Polunsky Unit, about 45 miles (72 kilometers) east of the state’s male death row inmates.
Roberson, 57, was convicted of killing his daughter Nikki Curtis in the East Texas city of Palestine. His lawyers and some medical experts maintain that his daughter died from complications related to pneumonia, not from abuse.
A last-minute operation at night maxed out the order.
The Texas Supreme Court, the state’s highest civil court, rarely becomes involved in criminal matters.
But the way the all-Republican court halted Mr. Roberson’s execution in the final hours highlighted the extraordinary maneuver taken by the bipartisan coalition of state representatives defending Mr. Roberson.
After court and Texas parole board efforts to save Roberson’s life were rejected, lawmakers tried a different route Wednesday. It was to subpoena Roberson to testify before a House committee next week, days after he was scheduled to die. The unusual plan to buy time, some of them admitted, had never been attempted before.
They argued that executing Mr. Roberson before he could subpoena him would violate Congress’ constitutional authority. Less than two hours before Roberson’s execution, an Austin judge sided with lawmakers in suspending the execution, which was later reversed by an appeals board. The Texas Supreme Court subsequently honored that order, ending a night of uncertainty.
Roberson is scheduled to testify before the committee on Monday.
“This is an innocent person, and there are too many doubts surrounding this case,” said Democratic state Rep. John Busey. “We agree that this is a unique decision today. We know this was not a done deal. He has a unique experience to speak of, and we will We need to hear that testimony at the meeting.”
The governor and the U.S. Supreme Court did not move to halt the execution.
Gov. Greg Abbott had the power to delay Roberson’s punishment for 30 days. Mr. Abbott has halted only one impending execution in his nearly 10 years as governor, and he has not spoken publicly about that case.
Earlier Thursday, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to halt the execution, but Justice Sonia Sotomayor, in a 10-page statement on the case, urged Abbott to grant a 30-day reprieve.
Roberson’s attorneys were waiting to see if Abbott would grant Roberson a one-time reprieve. That would have been the only action Abbott could take in the case Wednesday as the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles. Roberson’s petition for clemency was rejected..
The board voted unanimously, 6-0, not to recommend commuting Roberson’s death sentence to life in prison or delaying his execution. All directors are appointed by the Governor. Since the state resumed executions in 1982, parole boards have recommended clemency in death row cases only six times.
Abbott stopped an impending execution once when he saved the life of a death row inmate. thomas whitaker In 2018.
Lawmakers invoke Texas law on scientific evidence
A House committee held a day-long meeting Wednesday regarding Roberson’s case. In a surprising move at the end of the hearing, the committee issued a subpoena for Mr. Roberson to testify next week.
During the meeting in Austin, the committee heard testimony regarding Mr. Roberson’s case and the 2013 law enacted to allow people in prison to challenge their convictions based on new scientific evidence. He heard testimony about whether the law was ignored in Mr. Roberson’s case.
Anderson County District Attorney Alison Mitchell, whose office prosecuted Roberson, told the committee that a court hearing will be held in 2022 in which Roberson’s attorneys will present new evidence to the judge, but the judge said it rejected their claims.
“The combined evidence shows that a murder occurred here. Mr. Roberson took the life of his almost 3-year-old daughter,” Mitchell said.
Most members of the House committee were part of a bipartisan group of more than 80 state legislators, including at least 30 Republicans, who had called on the Parole Board and Abbott to halt executions.
Incident spotlighting shaken baby syndrome
Roberson’s case renews the debate over shaken baby syndrome, known in the medical community as a form of abusive head trauma.
and others, including his lawyers, Texas state legislators, medical experts, and best-selling authors. John Grisham He said his conviction was based on incomplete and now outdated scientific evidence. This diagnosis refers to severe brain damage that occurs when a child’s head is injured by a violent impact, such as a shake or being slammed against a wall or thrown on the floor.
Roberson’s supporters do not deny that the head and other injuries caused by child abuse are real. But doctors misdiagnosed Curtis’ injuries as related to shaken baby syndrome, and new evidence showed he died from complications related to severe pneumonia.
Roberson’s lawyers say her daughter fell out of bed at Roberson’s home after being seriously ill for about a week.
Roberson’s attorney also said his daughter’s undiagnosed autism at the time of her death was used against him because authorities suspected Roberson because of his lack of emotion in response to his daughter’s death. he suggested. Autism affects the way people communicate and interact with others.
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