UPDATE (10:20 p.m.) – Amanda Hernandez, a spokeswoman with TDCJ, announced that when staff told Roberson that his execution had been stayed, he was shocked. She said that he praised God and thanked his supporters
Roberson will return to the Polunsky Unit in Huntsville.
Lacy Hull (R – Houston) expressed her appreciation of her colleagues Joe Moody (D – El Paso) and Jeff Leach (R – Allen) in their efforts to stay Roberson’s execution and was appreciative of the Texas Supreme Court for their final decision. She said she looks forward to seeing Roberson at the Texas State House on Monday.
“This is an innocent man. There is too much shadow of doubt in this case,” Said Texas House representative John Bucy (D- Cedar Park).
Roberson’s hearing with the Texas House of Representatives is set for 12 p.m. on Monday.
Roberson’s advocates said that their hopes for Roberson is a new trial.
This is developing. KETK has a crew in Huntsville getting updates on this story as it unfolds. Check back for details.
UPDATE (9:45 p.m.) – The Texas Supreme Court halted the execution of Robert Roberson, just hours before his execution order was set to expire.
UPDATE: The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals shot down a last-minute motion by a Travis County judge to halt the execution of Robert Roberson.
Earlier today, the U.S. Supreme Court, one of Roberson’s last hopes of a stay of execution, issued an opinion declining to hear the case.
Sources say Roberson’s team has filed a writ with the Texas Supreme Court– this now looks to be their last hope of staying the execution.
As of 8:30 p.m., more than two hours after he was originally scheduled to be executed, Roberson remains alive in the Huntsville Unit.
It’s possible a ruling won’t be handed down by midnight. If that is the case, his execution warrant will expire, and a new one will need to be filed by the Anderson County District Attorney.
LIVINGSTON, Texas (KETK) – A Palestine, Texas man who is the subject of a nationwide outpouring of support is scheduled to be put to death Thursday evening in Huntsville as lawmakers make a last ditch effort to buy him time.
The Texas House Committee on Criminal Jurisprudence issued a subpoena for Robert Roberson, stating he must appear before the committee on Oct. 21. The committee, who heard hours of testimony Wednesday casting doubt on Roberson’s conviction, are likely hoping that they can delay his execution while the subpoena is litigated in court. This is uncharted waters for a death penalty case, and it is unclear what effect, if any, this will have on his scheduled execution.
If his execution goes through Thursday afternoon, Roberson will be taken from the Polunsky Unit in Livingston where male death row inmates are housed to the Huntsville Unit, also known as the Walls Unit. From there, he will wait until 6 p.m. for an execution that has been hanging over his head for the past 20 years.
In 2003, an East Texas jury found Roberson guilty of killing his daughter, 2-year-old Nikki Curtis. They decided that Roberson, beyond a reasonable doubt, caused the death of his daughter by violently shaking her, resulting in shaken baby syndrome.
Medical staff and the lead detective on the case were suspicious of Roberson’s seemingly cold demeanor at the time of his daughter’s death, viewing it as an indication of guilt. Roberson was diagnosed with autism in 2018, which can severely impact a person’s ability to communicate and show emotion, and could explain why he didn’t appear to be rattled when he rushed his daughter in for emergency care after she suffered a short fall in her sleep, his attorneys say.
“Her condition did not suggest abuse, but medical staff immediately looked with suspicion upon the awkward-looking father, who seemed to show no emotion,” according to a court filing. “Law enforcement was immediately called in.”
The science on shaken baby syndrome– now known as abusive head trauma– has been called into question in recent years. Where the diagnosis used to be made based on only a few pieces of physical criteria, The American Association of Pediatrics now states that “a final medical diagnosis of AHT is made only after consideration of all the available clinical data.” Roberson’s defense team is claiming doctors didn’t take into account his daughter’s “severe, undiagnosed pneumonia” which was “exacerbated by inappropriate respiratory-suppressing medications prescribed during her final days” by hospital staff when her father took her in for help days before her death. She was prescribed a cough syrup with promethazine and codeine– two drugs no longer recommended for children that would have further compounded her breathing problems.
The lead detective on the case, Brian Wharton, arrested Roberson before Nikki’s autopsy was performed based on a doctor’s opinion she died from shaken baby syndrome. Now, Wharton is perhaps the biggest advocate for Roberson’s innocence.
His defense team is arguing that his daughters death can be explained by other factors, which presents a reasonable doubt that her death was caused by Roberson. Still, Texas courts have been unwilling to review the new evidence.
In recent weeks, Roberson has received bipartisan support calling for a commutation, or in some cases a full pardon, of his death sentence. His defense team is citing questionable science used to justify his arrest in the first place, even petitioning the U.S. Supreme Court in one last ditch effort to spare his life.
“Ultimately, none of Roberson’s new evidence of innocence was considered by any court,” according to his petition, which asks for the court to hear his case to decide whether the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals infringed on his right to due process. “Instead, on September 11, 2024, the TCCA issued an unsigned opinion dismissing the application without consideration of the merits.”
If he is put to death on Thursday, it will be the first execution in the U.S. based on a shaken baby syndrome diagnoses.