Texas court rejects appeal of death row inmate convicted in shaken baby case

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals ruled last week to keep the scheduled Thursday execution of convicted killer Robert Roberson in place, despite several advocacy groups and politicians calling for a stay. The court failed to consider the medical and scientific evidence supporting Roberson’s claims of wrongful conviction, according to the Innocence Project, an advocacy group for those the group claims have been wrongfully convicted. More than 30 scientists and doctors support Roberson’s innocence, along with a bipartisan group of over 80 Texas legislators, the group said. Chairman of the Texas House Criminal Jurisprudence Committee, state Rep. Joe Moody, called a committee hearing for Wednesday. An execution is approaching and a strong majority of the Texas state representatives aren't even sure a crime was committed, Moody wrote after the Friday ruling.

Why is the conviction being questioned? A jury convicted Roberson in 2003 of murdering his 2-year-old-daughter, Nikki Curtis. Roberson brought Nikki to a local hospital when she stopped breathing one night in 2002. Medical staff noted bruising in 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, when a caretaker shakes an infant out of frustration and causes permanent brain damage. Abusive head trauma is the leading cause of child abuse deaths for children under the age of five, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Roberson claimed Nikki’s injuries came from falling off a bed, however nurses and doctors who cared for Nikki testified that the severity of her injuries seemed inconsistent with her simply falling off a bed. Roberson’s girlfriend, Teddie Cox, and her child also lived with him and Nikki. Cox’s 11-year-old niece testified to witnessing Roberson shake the infant on previous occasions.

Roberson’s lawyers insisted that the science behind shaken baby syndrome is invalid, despite a wide portion of the medical community backing the diagnosis. Nikki had been taken to the hospital the week she died with a fever of over 104 degrees, according to an NPR report. Doctors prescribed the child codeine and another respiratory suppressant in response to her struggling to breath. Roberson’s team alleged that Nikki died from sepsis that developed from a case of pneumonia she was battling before her death. Her illness combined with strong medications she should never have been prescribed in the first place led to her death, his team insisted.

Roberson may become the first person executed in the United States for shaken baby syndrome.

Dig deeper: Read Daniel James Devine’s feature in WORLD Magazine about another parent jailed for accusations of shaken baby syndrome.