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The execution of Robert Roberson, the man at the center of a controversial “shaken baby syndrome” case, is set to proceed after the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles unanimously voted against granting clemency on Wednesday.
Roberson, 57, is set to be executed by lethal injection on Thursday for the 2002 death of his daughter Nikki Curtis. The board’s decision came during a Texas House of Representatives hearing on the case.
According to the board’s voting records, panelists unanimously voted against the commutation of a death sentence to a lesser penalty and a 180-day reprieve of execution.
The parole board does not have the power to stop an execution but Governor Greg Abbott can grant clemency upon receiving a recommendation from the board. A group of 34 scientists from all over the world sent a letter to the panelists stating that Nikki died from a combination of severe pneumonia and septic shock.
“In other words, there was no homicide,” the group wrote. “Mr Roberson should not have been convicted, let alone convicted and sentenced to death.”
A group of 86 state legislators sent a letter to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals late Tuesday, requesting a stay of execution until the end of the 2025 session so that the legislature can consider amendments to laws impacting the case.
Roberson would be the first person to ever be executed in connection with the condition, which has been discredited by the scientific community. Norman Gutkelch, a British pediatrician credited with discovering “shaken baby syndrome”, told The Washington Post in 2015 he believed the reasoning behind some criminal convictions citing the science “was faulty.”
The board’s ruling came a day after an Anderson County court decided against vacating the man’s execution warrant. His attorneys argued that a judge who rejected his motion for relief in 2022 had been improperly assigned to the case.
Source: independent.co.uk
