The state's highest criminal court has declined to stop the execution next month of Robert Roberson, who was sentenced to death in 2003 for hilling his...
I testified for the prosecution and helped send Robert Roberson to death row in 2003. For 20 years, I have thought that something went very wrong in Roberson’s case and feared that justice was not served, writes Brian Wharton.
At trial, doctors testified that Nikki’s death was consistent with shaken baby syndrome — in which an infant is severely injured from being shaken violently back and forth — and a jury convicted Roberson.The Court of Criminal Appeals in 2016 stopped his execution and sent the case back to the trial court after the scientific consensus around shaken baby syndrome diagnoses came into question.
Roberson’s attorneys, in his latest habeas corpus petition denied on Wednesday, cited new evidence and three expert opinions that they said proved that Nikki died of natural and accidental causes — not of head trauma.They said that Nikki had “severe, undiagnosed” pneumonia that caused her to stop breathing, collapse and turn blue before she was discovered.
They have also argued that new scientific evidence suggests that it is impossible to shake a toddler to death without causing serious neck injuries, which Nikki did not have.And they argued that Roberson, who was later diagnosed with autism, was “treated with suspicion” for not displaying “sufficient emotion” at the hospital.
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