AUSTIN, Texas – Exonerees are urging the Texas courts to halt the execution of Robert Roberson and review new evidence in his case, warning that the state risks executing an innocent man. The Innocence Project says Roberson would be the first person executed in the United States for a conviction based on the now widely debunked “Shaken Baby Syndrome” hypothesis.
According to the Innocence Project, a virtual press conference of 20 exonerees called on Texas authorities Friday to prevent Roberson’s wrongful execution. He is scheduled to be executed on Oct. 16. The Innocence Project said several signatories were themselves wrongfully convicted under the now-discredited hypothesis.
Josh Burns, an airline pilot, was wrongfully convicted in Michigan for allegedly shaking his infant daughter, costing him 10 years of fighting to obtain official recognition of his innocence, according to the Innocence Project.
The letter from exonerees acknowledged “the horror of being wrongfully accused and convicted of having hurt a beloved child,” along with the possibility of being “blindsided by abuse accusations stemming from hasty, scientifically dubious diagnoses,” which can lead to being “charged with murder, convicted, and sentenced despite considerable reasons […] and medical alternatives.”
The Innocence Project emphasized that the signatories expressed relief for their own exonerations and urged that Roberson be freed to rebuild his life after “years of heartache, anguish, and despair.” They called on Texas authorities to “prevent the wrongful execution of this innocent father.”
“There is still time for the Court of Criminal Appeals to step in and prevent an irreparable injustice,” the Innocence Project stated.
Following Burns’ exoneration, he moved to Texas with his family, believing the state “cherished liberty, parental rights, and evidence-based science,” the Innocence Project said. Learning about Roberson’s case shocked him and compelled him to speak out, since “his case looks so much like mine, yet his life hangs in the balance.”
Concern has heightened as Roberson’s undiagnosed autism spectrum disorder seems to have contributed to the “rush of judgment against him,” the Innocence Project reported. Burns, whose daughter also has autism, said he empathized with “how challenging it must be for him to communicate what it feels like to be caught up in this kind of nightmare for over 20 years.”
Exoneree Audrey Edmunds also spoke out. She was wrongfully convicted of murder based on the SBS hypothesis after an infant died in her care, the Innocence Project said. Edmunds, once a happily married mother of two with a baby on the way, spent 11 years fighting for her freedom. The pseudo-science of SBS cost her over a decade with her family, and she said executing Roberson would be a “complete miscarriage of justice.”
The Innocence Project said the National Registry of Exonerations has recorded at least 41 wrongful convictions overturned on the basis of the SBS hypothesis.
Anna Vasquez and Sabrina Butler-Smith are two other exonerees who experienced wrongful convictions of harming children, which cost them years of their freedom. The Innocence Project said Vasquez spent 13 years in a Texas prison for a false child abuse conviction based in part on flawed forensic evidence.
The group also highlighted Butler-Smith’s case. As a teenage mother, she was coerced into a confession that led to her wrongful conviction for the murder of her infant son. She was reportedly the first woman exonerated from death row in the United States.
According to the Innocence Project, Katherine Judson, director of the Center for Integrity in Forensic Sciences, said, “Science proves Robert Roberson did not harm his daughter, and she died because of readily identifiable natural and accidental causes. The Texas courts and the Texas authorities have all of this evidence before them—they must not ignore it and allow an innocent man to be executed.”
The Innocence Project added that CIFS co-founder Keith Findley, emeritus professor at the University of Wisconsin Law School and author of the first multidisciplinary treatise on SBS/AHT (abusive head trauma), also voiced support. He said “all available evidence shows that Mr. Roberson’s daughter’s death was not a crime. Texas should not be afraid to admit when a mistake has been made.”
Roberson’s case has drawn national and international attention, as he was spared by Texas lawmakers from a near execution last year, according to the Innocence Project. The group said the state continues its efforts to execute him despite ongoing evidence of his innocence.
Roberson was a special education student who dropped out after the ninth grade. His 2-year-old daughter, Nikki, who was chronically ill, died in 2002 after falling a short distance off a bed while sick with a high fever and undiagnosed pneumonia.
Doctors prescribed her Phenergan, “a powerful medication that is no longer approved for children Nikki’s age and in her condition because of its respiratory-suppressing effects,” the Innocence Project said. She was also prescribed codeine, which is not recommended for anyone under 18.
When Roberson took Nikki to the emergency room, staff judged his response to his daughter’s condition as “lacking appropriate emotion,” not knowing he was autistic, the Innocence Project said.
The group concluded that police and prosecutors rushed to similar judgments based on the discredited SBS hypothesis and diagnostic process, which led to Roberson’s prosecution, conviction, and death sentence.
The child abuse pediatrician who made the SBS diagnosis did not review Nikki’s medical history, which documented unexplained breathing apnea and dangerous prescriptions, the Innocence Project said. The medical examiner who performed Nikki’s autopsy also did not review hospitalization records, CT scans, or differential diagnosis programs, which further supported Roberson’s innocence.
Pathologists have since concluded that “the 2002 autopsy performed on Nikki Curtis is not reliable,” and “[t]he conclusions regarding cause and manner of death … could not withstand scrutiny in light of contemporary scientific understanding,” according to the Innocence Project.
As Texas refuses to acknowledge the evidence of Roberson’s innocence, Findley urged the Court of Criminal Appeals to step in and consider all of the evidence proving Roberson’s innocence to prevent an irreparable injustice, the Innocence Project said.
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