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The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals halted the execution of Robert Roberson Thursday morning.
The order was issued one week before Roberson's execution was scheduled at the Texas State Penitentiary in Huntsville. Roberson was sentenced to death after he was convicted of capital murder in the 2002 death of his 2-year-old daughter Nikki.
Roberson's defense contends that he has spent 22 years on death row as an innocent man.
His legal team has argued that Nikki was misdiagnosed with shaken baby syndrome. Testimony from medical experts cited by the defense suggests that the child died from severe viral and bacterial pneumonia, exacerbated by prescribed dangerous medications, rather than abuse.
Texas "junk science" law
The Court of Criminal Appeals ruling from Thursday morning orders the trial court to weigh Roberson's arguments for overturning his conviction in line with what is known as Texas' junk science law, and in light of the case of Andrew Roark.
The 2013 law allows a person convicted of a crime to seek relief if the evidence used against them is no longer credible.
Roark was convicted of injury to a child in 2000 and sentenced to 35 years in prison based on a shaken baby syndrome diagnosis. Last year, the Court of Criminal Appeals sent Roark's case back to the trial court due to the new research surrounding shaken baby syndrome. The next month, the Dallas County District Attorney exonerated Roark.
Since 1992, at least 40 parents and caregivers have been exonerated after wrongful shaken baby convictions, according to Roberson's defense team.
New expert opinions found the shaken baby diagnosis unsound and asserted that the autopsy ruling the child's death a homicide was flawed, his legal team said. They claim that police and prosecutors rushed to judgment, leading to his wrongful conviction under the discredited shaken baby syndrome hypothesis.
A series of delayed executions
Since his first execution date more than nine years ago, Roberson's lawyers have filed multiple petitions with state and federal appeals courts, as well as with the U.S. Supreme Court, to try and stop his execution. Over the years, they have also asked the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles and Gov. Greg Abbott to stop his lethal injection, as part of their efforts to get Roberson a new trial.
After all of those avenues were exhausted, Roberson was scheduled to be executed in October of 2024. But in an unusual move, a bipartisan group of legislators on state House Criminal Justice Committee issued a subpoena for Roberson to testify in a hearing, The state supreme court upheld the subpoena, and the warrant for Roberson's execution expired at midnight the next day.
The office of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, as well as some medical experts and other family members of Nikki, maintain the girl died because of child abuse and that Roberson had a history of hitting his daughter.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
Steven Rosenbaum is a digital producer for CBS Texas. A versatile journalist, Steven writes, edits and produces content for the CBS Texas digital platforms.
