'Robert Roberson loses one of his final chances to stop Texas execution' was first published by The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan media organization t
was first published by The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan media organization that informs Texans — and engages with them — about public policy, politics, government and statewide issues.
Roberson, who was convicted of capital murder in 2003 for the death of his ailing 2-year-old daughter, Nikki Curtis, has maintained his innocence over 20 years on death row. “We’re barreling towards an execution when a strong bipartisan majority of #txlege reps aren’t even sure a crime occurred — and are very sure due process didn’t,” Moody wrote on social media Friday. “We have to do all we can to pump the brakes before this stains Texas justice for generations.”
In January 2002, Roberson rushed Nikki’s limp, blue body to the hospital after waking to find her unconscious and fallen from the bed in their Palestine home in East Texas. But doctors and nurses, who were unable to revive her, did not believe such a low fall could have caused the fatal injuries, and they suspected child abuse.
Roberson’s lawyers wrote in filings that, at the time of her death, Nikki had “severe, undiagnosed” pneumonia that caused her to stop breathing, collapse and turn blue before she was discovered. Instead of identifying her pneumonia in the days before her death, they wrote, doctors prescribed her Phenergan and codeine — drugs that are no longer given to children her age, and which they argued further suppressed her breathing.
His attorneys have also argued that his autism, which was not diagnosed until 2018, “directly contributed” to his conviction, with doctors and law enforcement viewing his “flat demeanor” as a “sign of culpability.”
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