Texas prepares to execute Robert Roberson, an innocent man, for a crime that never happened

Robert Leslie Roberson III, a Texas death row inmate, exhausted his last legal option to avoid execution Tuesday when an Anderson Country District Court judge ruled against rescinding his execution order. Roberson’s attorneys had argued in court that the previous judge, Deborah Oakes Evans, had not been properly assigned to his case and that Evans’ apparent bias, including her repeated denial of a hearing on Roberson’s previous requests, warranted her removal justified from the case. .

NBC affiliate KETK-TV in Tyler reported that Judge Alfonso Charles, the chairman of the Tenth Administrative Judicial Region, denied the defense’s request to vacate Roberson’s execution order. Charles also denied the request to remove the previous judge, Deborah Oakes Evans, from the case. Evans is now retired.

Unless Texas Governor Greg Abbott grants him a 30-day stay of execution, Roberson will die by lethal injection on Thursday, October 17. The Republican governor — who boasts that the death penalty is “Texas justice” — has overseen 77 executions since taking office. and only once granted clemency to a convicted prisoner.

Roberson, 57, is an innocent man. However, not only is he innocent, but the crime for which he was convicted never happened. He spent more than 20 years on death row after being convicted of the violent murder of his two-year-old daughter Nikki Curtis. However, the child’s death was in fact the result of a prolonged illness, misdiagnosis and the administration of medications inappropriate for a child of her age and condition.

Since his conviction, Roberson has argued that he is the victim of a justice system that wrongly attributed his daughter’s tragic death to “shaken baby syndrome” (SBS) and wrongly identified him as the brutal perpetrator. Roberson – who suffers from autism spectrum disorder, which was not diagnosed until after his conviction – is not a murderer, but a concerned father who sought urgent medical help for his daughter in the days before her death.

If his execution goes ahead, Roberson will be the first person to be convicted and executed based on the now-discredited scientific criteria for diagnosing shaken baby syndrome. His impending execution has been vilified by a bipartisan group of Texas lawmakers, the Autistic Self Advocacy Network, author John Grisham, numerous death penalty opponents and many others.

The Rev. Brian Wharton, a former police officer who investigated Roberson’s case and testified against him at his trial, now believes Roberson is innocent and has become one of his strongest advocates. Wharton says Roberson’s conviction and sentencing would not have occurred if there had been a more thorough investigation into the circumstances surrounding Nikki’s death, and the medical professionals involved had not jumped to conclusions.