In an Eleventh-hour flip of occasions, Robert Roberson, the primary individual set to be executed within the U.S. based mostly on the largely discredited “shaken child syndrome” speculation, was granted a brief maintain on his dying sentence.
Late Thursday night, the Texas Supreme Courtroom issued a brief keep within the case, delaying the looming execution and capping, for now, a back-and-forth collection of authorized maneuvers, together with an earlier choice by the U.S. Supreme Courtroom to not intervene within the case.
When he realized of the last-minute delay of his execution, Roberson, who was convicted of homicide within the dying of his 2-year-old daughter, was “shocked,” after which “praised God, thanked his supporters and proclaimed his innocence,” stated Amanda Hernandez, director of communications for the Texas Division of Legal Justice, throughout a information convention Thursday night.
The Texas excessive court docket’s ruling got here after Travis County District Courtroom Decide Jessica Mangrum initially put a brief maintain on Roberson’s execution to permit him to testify in a legislative listening to subsequent week — one thing sought by a bipartisan group of state lawmakers who had subpoenaed Roberson to look in a bid to delay the execution.
The non permanent maintain got here by way of lower than two hours earlier than Roberson was scheduled to be executed. Shortly thereafter, nevertheless, the Texas Courtroom of Legal Appeals reversed it, placing the execution again on observe.
In response, state lawmakers shortly sought a brief keep by the state’s Supreme Courtroom, which in the end granted the request.
Notably, Roberson’s execution warrant was solely legitimate by way of Oct. 17.
A legislative listening to at which Roberson is ready to testify is scheduled for midday on Monday within the Texas State Capitol.
“For 22 years, this man has been held in jail — on dying row — and we’re hoping that with this ruling in the present day we’ll be capable of deliver gentle and get to fact,” Texas State Rep. John Bucy advised reporters after the Texas Supreme Courtroom issued its order halting the execution.
Monday’s listening to, partly, will look at legal guidelines in Texas concentrating on “junk science” or unreliable forensic science proof.
“We wanted Robert to be there as a first-hand account, to have the ability to testify to the way it’s been utilized in his case,” Bucy stated.
Roberson was discovered responsible of the homicide of his 2-year-old daughter, Nikki, based mostly on the testimony from a pediatrician who described swelling and hemorrhages in her mind to assist a “shaken child syndrome” prognosis, regardless that there’s restricted proof that this can be a credible prognosis.
The speculation has come below critical scrutiny in biomechanical research, in addition to a rising physique of medical and authorized literature. The health worker on the time additionally suspected that Nikki sustained a number of head accidents and thought of the dying a murder within the official post-mortem.
Roberson is autistic, in response to his authorized workforce, which impacts how he expresses feelings — a priority that additionally arose through the trial.
Since his conviction, newly offered proof discovered that Nikki had pneumonia on the time of her dying and had been prescribed respiratory-suppressing medicine by docs within the days main as much as her dying.
A medical professional who carried out autopsy toxicology stories and reexamined her lung tissue stated they discovered that continual interstitial viral pneumonia and acute bacterial pneumonia had been damaging her lungs, inflicting sepsis after which septic shock, seemingly resulting in important organ failure.
Over 30 medical and scientific consultants have written to the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles, asking it to rethink Roberson’s sentence as a result of it hinged on the “shaken child syndrome.”
A bipartisan group of 86 Texas Home of Representatives members have additionally spoken in assist of Roberson’s clemency request, arguing {that a} state regulation allows opinions of wrongful convictions based mostly on adjustments in scientific proof. In Roberson’s case, they consider that the brand new proof ought to have led to a brand new trial.
In his plea to halt the execution to the Supreme Courtroom, Roberson argued that his federal due course of rights had been violated when Texas’ highest court docket refused to contemplate his bid to reopen the case based mostly on “substantial new scientific and medical proof.”
The plea itself adopted two earlier efforts: to have his sentence commuted to life in jail and to have his execution delayed. Each requests had been denied by the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles.
In its assertion of opposition to the Supreme Courtroom on Wednesday, the state of Texas claimed that there was no violation of Roberson’s constitutional rights that will warrant intervention from the upper court docket.
It stated that its personal courts have adequately thought-about and rejected Roberson’s requests to assessment the proof, writing: “As famous by the [Criminal Court of Appeal’s] opinion on direct assessment and Decide [Kevin] Yeary’s latest concurrence, ‘the tiny sufferer suffered a number of traumas’ which can be inconsistent with a brief fall from a mattress or problems from a virus.”
Earlier than the flurry of back-and-forth selections in Texas on Thursday, the U.S. Supreme Courtroom denied Roberson’s request for a keep and his petition that the justices take up the case.