An East Texas man will be put to death Oct. 17 in conjunction with a case in which no crime was committed, unless Gov. Greg Abbott intervenes. Robert Leslie Roberson III was convicted of capital murder in the 2002 death of his 2-year-old daughter Nikki in Palestine, Texas and has spent over 20 years on death row.
Roberson’s chronically ill daughter was sick with a high fever and undiagnosed pneumonia and suffered a short fall from bed. Hospital staff did not know Roberson was autistic and judged his response to his daughter’s grave condition as lacking emotion. He was prosecuted, convicted and sentenced to death under the Shaken Baby Syndrome hypothesis, a medical diagnosis that has since been discredited by evidence-based science.
If the execution goes forward, Roberson will be the first person in the U.S. executed for Shaken Baby Syndrome.
As the clock ticks down, there is one last glimmer of hope. A hearing has been set for 10 a.m. Oct. 15 in the Anderson County Courthouse on the defense’s motion to vacate the unlawful execution warrant.
“It is terrible that they set it so close to the execution date. But it is our next best shot for making some ‘noise.’ What I mean by that is that we would like to fill the courthouse with supportive citizens. The goal is not to be disruptive in any way but to make it clear that a lot of people are concerned about this case,” Gretchen Sween, Roberson’s attorney said.
“Science now teaches that undiagnosed illnesses that affect respiration, like Nikki’s pneumonia, and unbraced falls that impact the head can be fatal. What happened to Robert Roberson should not happen to any parent who is simply incapable of explaining a child’s condition – especially when many trained medical professionals barely understand the phenomenon,” Sween said.
In a strange twist of fate that one would usually only see in the movies, the assistant police chief for the Palestine Police department who was the lead detective on the case is no longer in law enforcement but is now the pastor at First United Methodist Church of Onalaska, just 15.2 miles north of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice Polunsky Unit, where Roberson resides on death row.
“He’s never been far from my mind because I helped put him here and he didn’t deserve it,” Brian Wharton said.
“That was two decades ago. Since then, I have left police work and entered the ministry. But I’ve never been able to forget Robert Roberson. This case has been a burden on my heart and my spirit. I’m convinced we did the wrong thing. No other possibilities for her injury were considered. I deeply regret that we followed the easiest path,” Wharton said.
Nikki was chronically ill from birth. Born to a single mother who was homeless and addicted to drugs, Nikki was taken by CPS at birth, long before Roberson was identified as her father.
Since 1992, at least 34 defendants were later exonerated in connection with allegations of shaken baby syndrome or abusive head trauma, according to the National Registry of Exonerations, which tracks sentences for wrongful convictions.
