Robert Roberson case

Robert Leslie Roberson III was born on November 10, 1966, in Wood County, Texas. Official records showed that between 1991 and 1999, Roberson was convicted of burglary, theft and parole violations; he was released from prison in 2000. Prior to 2002, Roberson was divorced with two children, and he also fathered a daughter with another woman, who was reputedly a habitual drug abuser and sex worker. The girl, Nikki Michelle Curtis, was born on October 20, 1999, and entrusted to the care of her maternal grandparents; Roberson was granted custody of Nikki after he underwent DNA testing, which confirmed that he was the biological father of Nikki. Nikki was said to have had several chronic health problems soon after her birth. ==Daughter's death and murder trial==

On January 31, 2002, two years after the end of his most recent time in prison, Roberson brought an injured Nikki to the hospital. He stated to hospital authorities that his daughter had fallen from her bed and sustained head injuries and was unconscious and not breathing when he awoke and found her. In spite of medical treatment, two-year-old Nikki Curtis was later pronounced dead after attempts to revive her failed. The defense suggested that Roberson's ex-wife and Nikki's mother was an unreliable witness. They believed she had motivation to lie, having lost custody of their two children years prior in a drawn-out court battle, noting that she was flown in from Alabama to testify. Multiple witnesses, all related to Teddie Cox, Roberson's girlfriend at the time of Nikki's death, testified that they had seen Roberson shake Nikki on prior occasions. The defense argued that they too were unreliable; Teddie Cox in particular had admitted that she changed her story several times "depending on how I feel at the moment", while her children were aged 9 and 10 and had been told by their mother that Roberson killed Nikki, which could have produced an adverse bias against him. On February 21, 2003, Roberson was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death by an Anderson County jury. Another two appeals were rejected in May and August 2015, respectively, by the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals. ==Post-conviction controversy and 2016 execution stay==

Roberson's conviction began to garner attention as "shaken baby syndrome", a significant basis of the case against Roberson, has become increasingly controversial, with critics labeling it junk science. Most researchers in the field do believe that some patterns of injury are suggestive of abuse which may at least partially be the result of shaking, but warn that doctors and certainly juries should be extremely cautious before relying upon such a diagnosis. In addition, Roberson's lawyers argued that the medical experts at trial had failed to consider alternative explanations behind the cause of death, or taken into account the chronic health conditions which Nikki suffered prior to her death. Among the new evidence submitted was that Nikki had suffered from pneumonia, which in turn had developed into undiagnosed sepsis. Roberson's defense argued that it was the pneumonia-caused sepsis which led to her death rather than the head injuries, adding that the medicine administered to Nikki by doctors is no longer prescribed to children, as it may cause serious complications. Furthermore, the bruising and internal bleeding cited by the prosecution could have been caused during life saving efforts, via reorientation of the skull to adjust for urgent intubation, in an effort to prevent brain death. For their part, prosecutors maintained that Roberson's new evidence did not disprove that Nikki had died from head injuries inflicted by her father. Roberson was reportedly diagnosed afterward with autism, a neurodevelopmental disorder that can lead to difficulties in social communication. According to a former detective, the later revelation of Roberson's then-undiagnosed condition made him realize that the strange behavior displayed by Roberson in response to his daughter's death, behavior which prompted investigators' suspicions of Roberson, was likely due to autism, and not necessarily an indication of guilt. Originally, Roberson was slated to be executed on June 21, 2016, after he had exhausted all his appeals against the death sentence. However, four days before the execution date, Roberson was granted a stay of execution, and a court hearing was convened to review his case. The main point of the hearing was to determine whether Roberson's conviction should stand in light of the discredited theory of shaken baby syndrome. Some murder convictions based upon shaken baby syndrome had been overturned by the courts under a new Texas law which in part targets cases of convictions based upon junk science. The evidentiary hearing came to an end on March 19, 2021. On January 11, 2023, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals decided that there was insufficient basis for the court to intervene in Roberson's case after they found that the doubt surrounding the death of Nikki and purported concerns with the theory of shaken baby syndrome was not enough to bring Roberson off death row nor revoke his conviction for murder. Similarly, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected another appeal from Roberson on October 2, 2023. ==2024 execution stay==

On July 1, 2024, the trial court in Anderson County approved a death warrant for Roberson, and his execution was scheduled for October 17, 2024. Roberson was reportedly the first death row prisoner convicted on the grounds of "shaken baby syndrome" to have an execution date scheduled in the United States. When the scheduling of Roberson's execution was publicized, his case was heavily debated over whether his murder conviction and death sentence should stand in light of criticisms of "shaken baby syndrome", and the lingering concerns of Roberson's alleged innocence were heightened after the announcement of his execution date. In a final series of legal attempts to escape the death penalty, Roberson and his lawyers appealed to the state courts to overturn his conviction and sentence, stating that he was innocent and never killed Nikki. Roberson also brought up his undiagnosed autism to seek mercy and argued that it had hindered him from having a fair trial. An appeal to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals was rejected on September 11, 2024. There was considerable support coming from lawmakers and law enforcement personnel to stave off Roberson's execution. Reverend Brian Wharton, a former police officer who investigated Roberson's case and whose testimony helped send Roberson to death row, advocated for the commutation of Roberson's death sentence, stating he believed at this stage that the conviction or sentence should not have happened if proper investigations had been made in the case, especially since Roberson's autism went undiagnosed. A clemency petition signed by 84 lawmakers from the 150-member state House, bestselling novelist John Grisham, medical experts, death penalty attorneys and former detectives of the case was submitted to the state Pardons Board for the commutation of Roberson's death sentence to life without parole. One of these supporters, John Grisham, cited his reason behind his support for clemency, stating that no crime had taken place to begin with and that Texas was about to execute an innocent man. Under Texas state law, the final recourse for inmates awaiting their scheduled execution was to appeal for clemency and the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles would decide whether to recommend clemency, with the governor having the final say, although it was noted that the governor Greg Abbott had rarely granted clemency throughout his tenure. Two weeks before he was to be executed, Roberson also made a personal plea to the governor to spare his life. On October 8, 2024, Roberson was granted a new hearing of his appeal against the death sentence but on October 11, 2024, Roberson's appeal was dismissed by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. On October 15, 2024, Administrative Judge Alfonso Charles, who was the Tenth Administrative Judicial Region presiding judge, rejected the appeal of Roberson to vacate his death warrant. On that same date, the Texas House of Representative's Committee on Criminal Jurisprudence approved a subpoena to allow Roberson to testify before a Texas House committee in relation to his case. Simultaneously, as a last resort to evade the death penalty, Roberson appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. The Texas Attorney General's office had responded that Roberson had failed to prove his innocence and it had been upheld by multiple court proceedings that the cause of Nikki Curtis's death was "inconsistent with a short fall from a bed or complications from a virus". The U.S. Supreme Court rejected this final appeal hours before the scheduled timing of Roberson's execution. Roberson was slated to be put to death via lethal injection at 6:00 pm CDT on October 17 in the Huntsville Unit. However, a Travis County judge issued an order to temporarily block the execution. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals subsequently overturned the stay after the prosecution appealed and ordered the execution to move forward. However, the Supreme Court of Texas intervened and temporarily halted the execution after Roberson's attorney and state lawmakers filed a last-second appeal for a stay. However, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton barred Roberson from appearing in person to testify, saying it wouldn't be safe to bring a death row inmate to the Capitol. On November 15, 2024, the Texas Supreme Court ruled that state lawmakers had "exceeded their power" when they called on Roberson to testify before a House committee. A new execution date can be set, but the court also said lawmakers could still call Roberson to testify and that the executive branch would have to accommodate such a request. On December 2, 2024, the judge who signed Roberson's death warrant, Judge Deborah Oakes Evans, voluntarily recused herself from the case. ==2025 execution stay==

On June 17, 2025, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton lodged a second motion to seek a new execution date for Roberson, after the prosecution of the case was transferred to his office at the request of District Attorney Allyson Mitchell. On July 16, state district Judge Austin Reeve Jackson scheduled the execution for October 16, 2025. On September 26, 2025, it was reported that Roberson waived his right to petition for clemency. Instead, he would channel his last attention and efforts into seeking a new trial for his murder conviction. On October 9, 2025, the Court of Criminal Appeals issued an emergency stay of execution. The court's stay sends the matter back to the trial court to review the science based on the state's 2013 junk science law. == Media attention and public opinion ==

The appellate process and statements made by politicians have generated extensive media coverage. Novelist John Grisham is writing about the case in a non-fiction book to be titled, SHAKEN: The Rush to Execute an Innocent Man, set to publish in summer 2026. Many people have begun to argue that the definition of shaken baby syndrome has changed since the time of Roberson's conviction, including his attorney, Gretchen Sween. Doctors have come forward to argue that Nikki's cause of death was actually undiagnosed pneumonia and medications which suppressed her respiratory system, causing public outcry. == See also ==