LIVINGSTON, Texas – LIVINGSTON, Texas (AP) — Robert Roberson was calm and hopeful as he reflected on his mortality and whether he could again avoid becoming the first person in the United States to be executed on a murder charge related to the diagnosis Shaken baby syndrome.
A few days before the scheduled October 16 executionRoberson has maintained his innocence in the 2002 death of his 2-year-old daughter Nikki Curtis in the east Texas town of Palestine. He is set to die by lethal injection nearly a year after a group of Texas lawmakers who say he is innocent won an emergency last-minute reprieve while Roberson waited outside Huntsville's death row.
Roberson said he hopes another stay of execution is in the hands of his lawyers, supporters and God.
“I'm not going to get nervous or anything, because I know God has it, you know. He's in control. No matter what, God is in control, you know, and he does have the final say, you know,” Roberson, 58, told The Associated Press last week as he sat behind a glass partition in the visiting area of Polunsky's unit in Livingston, where men on death row in Texas are held.
During the hour-long interview, Roberson said he thinks about his daughter every day and what kind of life she will have today.
Prosecutors at Roberson's 2003 trial argued that he hit his daughter and shook her violently, causing severe head trauma, and that she died from injuries related to shaken baby syndrome. Roberson's lawyers and some medical experts say his daughter died not from abuse, but from complications related to pneumonia. They say his conviction was based on flawed and outdated scientific evidence.
The diagnosis of Shaken Baby Syndrome refers to a serious brain injury caused by damage to a child's head from shaking or other forceful impact, such as being hit against a wall or thrown to the floor.
Roberson's lawyers argue that his undiagnosed autism helped convict him because authorities and medical staff believed he was not acting like a concerned parent because his flat affect was seen as a sign of guilt.
Last year, Roberson was on the verge of execution during a wave of protests last minute legal maneuvers on the night of the scheduled execution, including unprecedented intervention bipartisan group of Texas legislators, stopped his lethal injection. In Julythe judge set a new execution date, Roberson's third.
During the AP interview, Roberson frequently did not make eye contact and repeated words or phrases, behaviors that experts say are associated with autism.
“They took (the blame) because of the way I acted, you know. And I didn't know I was autistic, you know, until years and years later, you know,” said Roberson, who was only diagnosed with autism in 2018.
Roberson's supporters and his legal team are again holding rallies and asking state and federal appeals courts and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott to stop his execution. His supporters include both liberal and ultra-conservative legislatorsTexas GOP megadonor and conservative activist Doug Deason, best-selling author John Grisham and Brian Wharton, a former police detective who helped build the case against him.
“The whole world is watching. Texas, don't kill this innocent man,” Wharton said during a Saturday rally outside the Texas Capitol building in Austin.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton's office, as well as some medical experts and other members of Nikki's family, allege that the girl died due to child abuse and that Roberson repeatedly beat his daughter.
“It's been a long time… In my opinion, he's 100% done it,” Matthew Bowman, Nikki's half-brother, told reporters in July. Bowman declined to speak to the AP.
Abbott's office did not immediately respond to emails seeking comment. Abbott has the authority to grant a one-time 30-day reprieve.
Roberson said he never harmed his daughter and worked to turn his life around and take care of Nikki after spending time in prison for burglary and check theft.
“I never shook her or hit her,” Roberson said, adding that he never punished his daughter “because she was so tiny.”
Shaken Baby Syndrome has come under scrutiny in recent years, with some lawyers and medical experts arguing that the diagnosis sent by mistake People to jail. Prosecutors and medical societies to say that it remains valid.
“What happened to Nikki is no longer a mystery. She wasn't shaking. It was her chronic, serious illness,” Gretchen Sween, one of Roberson's lawyers, said at Saturday's rally. “No crime occurred.”
But in a September 26 article in The Dallas Morning NewsThree pediatricians, including two from the Yale School of Medicine, said they had reviewed the case and were “convinced that Nikki was a victim of child abuse.”
Roberson was arrested after driving Nikki to the hospital when she passed out after falling out of bed. He said he had never heard of shaken baby syndrome.
“It was really bad losing my little girl. And then when they accused me of it, I couldn't believe it,” Roberson said.
In a press release issued after Roberson's execution was stayed last year, as well as in recent court filings, Paxton's office emphasized that “this was not just a case of shaking a child, but a child who was beaten and struck multiple times in the head.” Paxton's office said the jury “found Roberson not guilty on the basis of Shaken Baby Syndrome.”
However, one of the jurors who convicted Roberson, Terra Compton, told lawmakers last year that “everything that was presented to us was related to shaken baby syndrome. That's what our decision was based on.”
Grisham, who is writing a book about the case, said Roberson's trial “was grossly unfair” because his autism contributed to people believing he was guilty and his lawyers told jurors it was a case of shaken baby syndrome.
Roberson said he remains optimistic he will one day have a chance to prove his innocence in a new trial.
“I'm not afraid to die, but I'm not ready to die, you know. I'd like to believe that God has more to do for me and everything,” Roberson said.
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Follow Juan A. Lozano: https://x.com/juanlozano70
