Texas lawmakers urge mercy for autistic man set to be executed in child's death

AUSTIN (Nexstar) -- In 15 days, the State of Texas plans to execute Robert Roberson, a 57-year-old autistic man convicted in 2003 of killing his child on evidence of "shaken baby syndrome." However, a bipartisan majority of Texas House lawmakers say "no crime ever occurred."

When Roberson rushed his daughter Nikki to the hospital with high fever and undiagnosed pneumonia, doctors thought he had hurt her. Her condition and Roberson's unfazed demeanor suggested foul play, according to court documents.

He was arrested before his daughter passed, and eventually convicted on a since-discredited "shaken baby syndrome" hypothesis, which is medical diagnosis that posits a baby can sustain serious head injuries if shaken. A majority of the medical community now believes "shaken baby syndrome" is baseless and was improperly used to accuse innocent parents of child abuse, court records state.

Roberson's lawyer said medical evidence found Nikki's severe pneumonia went unchecked by doctors and even exacerbated by improper medications that suppressed her breathing. Roberson's undiagnosed autism would also account for his abnormal demeanor, his lawyer said.

"It's a very disturbing case," Roberson's lawyer Gretchen Sween said. "Every Texan should be alarmed that this is careening forward in our name as somehow the product of justice when, in fact, it's an emblem of how things can go terribly wrong."

In what could possibly be Roberson's final days, a bipartisan majority of the Texas House is pleading with the Court of Criminal Appeals and Gov. Greg Abbott to grant mercy. A bipartisan delegation of lawmakers visited Roberson at TDCJ's Polunsky Unit last week.

"That was really incredible to visit," Rep. Salman Bhojani, D-Euless, said. "He had so much hope inside him that he gave us hope... (execution would) be a very grave injustice, and I wouldn't want it on my watch."

Last month, Roberson filed a petition for clemency containing new medical evidence showing his daughter died of severe illness, an accidental fall, and improper medical care -- not abuse. They further argue that Roberson's trial was ridden with errors and unfairness, citing the new medical consensus that the testimony regarding "shaken baby syndrome" during trial is "junk science."

An updated petition for clemency highlights another case pending before the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals that Roberson's team argues is strikingly similar to his case. In another challenged conviction, the state conceded that nearly identical testimony on shaken baby syndrome was false. Roberson was convicted on a "debunked theory" from the same child abuse expert.

"It would be an extreme personal tragedy for Mr. Roberson and his loved ones were he to be executed—only to have the law finally recognize, in someone else’s case, that his conviction hinges on discredited science," the new petition states. "It would also cause incalculable harm to the integrity of Texas’s criminal legal system if Mr. Roberson were to be executed in this high-profile case—only to have the CCA rule a few months later that the Shaken Baby hypothesis used to convict him is unsound science.”

Roberson is requesting the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles recommend commutation of his death sentence to a lesser penalty, or at least a reprieve of execution for 180 days to allow the Board to consider the new evidence. The decision ultimately rests with Gov. Greg Abbott.

"I don't think there's any Texan who believes that executing an innocent person serves any valid purpose in our justice system, and it is our adamant belief that he is not only innocent, but that no crime occurred," Sween said. "We have not been able to get a court to look at this new evidence, and the clock is ticking, and we are down to the wire with really the only recourse of clemency as a means to potentially stop this."

This is Roberson's second time to face an execution date. In 2016, the Court of Criminal Appeals halted his execution one week before he was scheduled to go to the death chamber. The appeals court sent the case back to the trial court in Anderson County for further review.

After a hearing in 2021, the district judge said there was insufficient evidence to grant Roberson a new trial. In 2023, the Court of Criminal Appeals denied the request to overturn Roberson's conviction.

Roberson is now scheduled for execution on Oct. 17.