Texas appeals court pauses execution of shaken baby convict

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals stayed the execution of convicted murderer Robert Roberson on Thursday, a week before his scheduled lethal injection. Roberson, convicted in 2003 of killing his 2-year-old daughter, was set to be the first person executed in the United States for a murder in a case involving shaken baby syndrome. His case will now return to the East Texas district that held his initial trial for further review.

Thursday marked the third time a scheduled execution of Roberson was stopped. His case made headlines over the last year and triggered intervention from the Texas Supreme Court. Roberson continually insisted his innocence, with his lawyers arguing that the science behind shaken baby syndrome was invalid and the now 58-year-old was wrongfully convicted.

What happened to his daughter? Roberson brought his infant daughter, Nikki Curtis, to a local hospital in 2002 when she stopped breathing one night. Medical staff noted bruising several places on the comatose child’s body, and a CT scan showed severe brain trauma. An autopsy later attributed the child’s death to blunt force head injuries, according to court documents. A common cause of brain injury and swelling in infants is shaken baby syndrome, a form of child abuse that occurs when an infant is violently shaken, causing permanent brain damage.

What evidence supports a wrongful conviction? Roberson’s legal team noted that Nikki had been taken to the hospital earlier that week with a fever of over 104 degrees. During that visit, doctors reportedly prescribed the child codeine and another respiratory suppressant in response to her struggling to breathe. Nikki also developed sepsis from the pneumonia she was battling before her death, according to Roberson’s team. The illnesses combined with the heavy medications caused the internal injuries that proved fatal to the 2-year-old, Roberson’s team has theorized.

Roberson’s case made national attention ahead of his last scheduled execution last October when several advocacy groups and state politicians from both parties insisted he had been wrongfully convicted. Texas Supreme Court eventually issued an execution stay for Roberson the day he was scheduled to die.

How are people responding to the latest execution stay? Democratic state Rep. John Bucy III released a Thursday statement celebrating the stay. The courts will finally review the new science in Roberson’s case and deliver true justice for both him and Nikki after more than 20 years, he wrote.

Republican state Rep. Brian Harrison also released a Thursday morning statement, applauding the conservative court’s decision. The strongest death penalty advocates must also ensure that people who are possibly innocent do not receive it, Harrison said. The ruling brought Harrison hope that the truth would be revealed and that justice would prevail.

WORLD reached out to Attorney General Ken Paxton’s office for comment and did not receive an immediate reply. The attorney general pushed back on public sympathy for Roberson last year and released the original autopsy report and medical testimony concluding that Nikki died from blunt force trauma to the head. Public sympathy is misplaced, and Roberson’s rejection of shaken baby science is not based in reality, his office said last October.

Dig deeper: Read my previous report on why the Texas Supreme Court reversed its original decision to stop Roberson’s execution.