Texas court denies leniency to Robert Roberson, sentenced to death for forensic investigation into ‘junk science’

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has denied an 11th-hour request from death row inmate Robert Roberson to halt his scheduled execution today — despite evidence that his 2003 conviction for the murder of his 2-year-old daughter was based on ‘junk science’ . Unless Texas Governor Greg Abbott or the U.S. Supreme Court intervenes, Roberson will be executed tonight at 6 p.m. The appeals court ruling came even after a bipartisan group of lawmakers requested a stay of execution, writing: “We believe it would be a stain on the conscience of the State of Texas for an execution to proceed while efforts are underway to to address shortcomings in the way the law was applied to this case.”

Roberson’s conviction was based solely on forensic testimony citing the “shaken baby syndrome hypothesis,” which became popular in the early 2000s but was never scientifically validated.