Today, Texas District Court Judge Austin Reeve Jackson granted Attorney General Ken Paxton’s request to schedule Robert Roberson’s execution for October 16, even though the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals is currently considering new evidence further proving his innocence.
Roberson, who has Autism Spectrum Disorder, was granted custody of his two-year-old daughter, Nikki, who was chronically ill, in November 2001. In 2002, Nikki was sick with a high fever and undiagnosed pneumonia when she suffered a short fall from bed. Roberson took Nikki to the emergency room, where hospital staff did not know he had Autism and judged his response to his daughter’s grave condition as lacking emotion. The police and prosecutors similarly rushed to judgment, and, after Nikki tragically died, Roberson was prosecuted, convicted, and sentenced to death under the now-discredited Shaken Baby Syndrome hypothesis.
Roberson has been fighting for his life as the State of Texas refuses to acknowledge the evidence of his innocence while he remains at high risk of execution, his legal team says. He has presented extensive new medical and scientific evidence from highly qualified experts showing that Nikki actually died of severe viral and bacterial pneumonia that medical professionals missed in 2002, not any abuse.
Roberson is alive today because a bipartisan group of Texas lawmakers chose to dig deep into the facts of his case, according to Roberson’s legal team. On October 16, 21, and December 20, 2024, the House Committee on Criminal Jurisprudence held hearings to determine whether Article 11.073, the changed-science law Texas lawmakers passed over a decade ago for innocent individuals like him, is being applied as intended. These hearings demonstrated that Roberson’s case exemplifies how this ground-breaking law has failed to fulfill its promise of granting relief to innocent people who were wrongfully convicted based on subsequently discredited science.
At the hearings, experts presented evidence that Nikki died of pneumonia, exacerbated by improper medications, and how the progression of her disease, along with medical intervention, affected her body by the time the autopsy was performed. The hearing witnesses also explained the absence of evidence of “battery,” or any other abuse, and showed that the State’s view of the case is untethered to science or their own evidence at trial.
“Texans should be outraged that the court has scheduled an execution date for a demonstrably innocent man. Everyone who has taken the time to look at the evidence of Robert Roberson’s innocence—including the lead detective, one of the jurors, a range of highly qualified experts, and a bipartisan group of Texas lawmakers— has reached the same conclusion: Nikki’s death was a terrible tragedy. Robert did not kill her. There was no crime,” stated Gretchen Sween, Roberson’s attorney, in a press release.
“We will seek a stay of Mr. Roberson’s execution so all of the evidence that proves he is innocent can be reviewed by the courts without the pressure of a looming execution date,” Sween said.
Roberson has wide-ranging support from scientists, doctors, faith leaders, innocence groups, former federal judges, the best-selling novelist John Grisham, and the lead detective who testified for the prosecution but now believes Roberson is innocent. The New York Times posted a powerful and beautifully written video documenting a meeting between the two men on death row. “There is unassailable doubt that Robert did it,” the detective says. As for Roberson, “I just hope and pray that we can make things right together,” he says.
If Roberson’s execution is not stayed, he will be the first person executed in the United States for a conviction obtained using the now widely debunked “Shaken Baby” hypothesis, Roberson’s legal team notes.