One doesn’t have to be for or against the death penalty to see that an East Texas man scheduled for execution next month should be granted clemency.
The case of Robert Roberson III isn’t about politics. It’s about justice, more specifically the proper functioning of the Texas criminal justice system.
That’s why 86 Republican and Democratic state lawmakers are supporting Roberson’s clemency petition, filed this week in Austin. They’re joined by dozens of medical experts, parental rights’ advocates, and others — even the former lead detective on the case — who believe Roberson’s chronically ill daughter did not die of the now-debunked “shaken baby syndrome,” but from natural and accidental causes. Even novelist John Grisham has take up the cause to save Roberson’s life.
Add us to the list. The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles should recommend approval of Roberson’s petition, and Gov. Greg Abbott should grant it. New evidence not only casts substantial doubt on his 2003 conviction, but also provides a sound reason for what really caused 2-year-old Nikki Curtis’ death.
“It should shock all Texans that we are barreling toward an execution in the face of this new evidence,” states a letter signed by the Texas House representatives to the parole board. In addition to several Democrats who have long opposed the death penalty, the appeal was signed by several conservative Republicans from North Texas, including Reps. Jeff Leach of Plano, Charlie Geren of Fort Worth, Giovanni Capriglione of Southlake, Angie Chen Button of Richardson, Kronda Thimesch of Lewisville and Jared Patterson of Frisco.
Dozens of convictions based on the “shaken baby syndrome” have been overturned in recent years. Doctors have come to believe that the so-called triad of symptoms that supported the diagnosis — bleeding over the brain, brain swelling and retinal hemorrhages — do not necessarily mean a child was forcibly shaken and can be caused in a variety of other ways.
In Nikki’s case, doctors who have recently reviewed her autopsy and hospital records believe those same symptoms in her were caused by a fall from her bed and undiagnosed pneumonia that was exacerbated by highly potent drugs prescribed to her in the days before her death.
The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals stayed Roberson’s execution in 2016 and sent it back to the Anderson County court where a jury convicted him. But the judge affirmed the death sentence and Roberson’s subsequent appeals have failed on procedural grounds. He is scheduled to die by lethal injection on Oct. 17.
Gov. Abbott cannot let that happen. To be convicted of even a low-level misdemeanor, one must be found guilty beyond all reasonable doubt. Far, far more than that exists in this case, and a man’s life is on the line. This isn’t political. It’s moral. Our criminal justice system will have failed if Roberson is put to death.
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