Despite serious doubts about the diagnosis, Robert Roberson, an American with autism, condemned for the death of his daughter attributed to “shaken baby” syndrome, was set a new date of execution. Almost a year ago, escaped in extremis.
The 58 -year -old man had obtained a stay of his execution by lethal injection on October 17, 2024, following a request from a Commission of the Texas Parliament which had summoned him for a hearing, precisely in order to save his life. The Supreme Court of Texas had granted him this last -minute respite but then considered in November that a parliamentary committee could thus hinder a court decision and that a new date of execution could therefore be fixed.
“Robert did not kill her. There was no crime “
A judge set this date on October 16 on Wednesday, to the chagrin of the defenders of Robert Roberson, who in February seized a criminal appeal jurisdiction in Texas to obtain the review of his file.
“The Texans should be indignant that the court has set an execution date for a man whose innocence can be demonstrated,” his lawyer Gretchen Sween reacted in a statement.
“Anyone who has taken the trouble to examine the evidence of Robert Roberson’s innocence reached the same conclusion: Nikki’s death was a terrible tragedy. Robert did not kill her. There was no crime, “she reaffirmed, adding that she would ask for a new stay.
A death finally due to pneumonia?
The defenders of Robert Roberson, including the former police officer Brian Wharton, in charge of the file at the time, and the author of successful thrillers John Grisham, argue that the diagnosis of shaken baby syndrome, established in 2002 to the hospital where he had brought his daughter Nikki to the emergency room in critical condition, was wrong.
In addition, his autism, ultimately officially diagnosed in 2018 and interpreted as an indifference to the situation, weighed heavily in his conviction, according to them.
His lawyers are based in particular on recent medical analyzes attributing Nikki’s death to a serious pneumonia, not detected at the time, aggravated by the prescription of unsuitable drugs, as evidenced in a letter 34 doctors.
The elected officials of the Criminal Justice Commission of the House of Representatives of Texas, who had summoned it, deplore that it is so little applied by the courts a pioneering law adopted in 2013 by their State to revise the convictions based on scientific elements proving to be erroneous.