Texas will execute a person for murdering his two-year-old daughter, regardless of doubts about his guilt.
Robert Roberson is scheduled to obtain a deadly injection Thursday after the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles rejected his request for clemency.
If the execution goes forward, he would be the first individual in america to face capital punishment for a homicide conviction associated to the controversial analysis of shaken child syndrome.
Roberson has maintained his innocence within the loss of life of his daughter, Nikki Curtis, and the lead detective investigating the case has additionally come to his protection, urging the state to remain the execution.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott might grant a one-time 30-day keep of Roberson’s scheduled execution, however can’t grant a full pardon with out the parole board’s suggestion.
Gretchen Sween, considered one of Roberson’s attorneys, urged the governor to grant clemency “in order that we will proceed to defend Mr. Roberson’s declare of innocence.”
“We pray that Governor Abbott will do the whole lot in his energy to keep away from the tragic and irreversible mistake of executing an harmless man,” Sween stated.
In his almost 10 years as governor, Abbott has solely stopped one imminent execution.
‘The system failed’
Calls have grown to halt Roberson’s execution due to questions on proof that his daughter suffers from shaken child syndrome, a mind harm attributable to violent shaking or influence.
Roberson’s supporters say medical doctors misdiagnosed Curtis’ accidents as associated to shaken child syndrome and that new proof exhibits the woman died not from abuse however from problems associated to extreme pneumonia.
Roberson’s attorneys additionally recommend that her autism, which was undiagnosed on the time of her daughter’s loss of life, was used in opposition to her when authorities grew to become suspicious as a result of her lack of emotion about what had occurred to her daughter. .
One outstanding voice that has come to Roberson’s protection is conservative activist Doug Deason, who wrote in a submit on X on Tuesday: “I imagine he’s harmless.”
One other defender is the lead detective on Roberson’s case, Brian Wharton, who has expressed remorse for enjoying a job in his conviction.
“Understanding the whole lot I do know now, I’m firmly satisfied that Robert is an harmless man,” Wharton stated at a latest information convention organized by Roberson’s supporters. “The system failed Robert.”
The Anderson County District Legal professional’s Workplace, which prosecuted Roberson, has stated in courtroom paperwork that after a listening to in 2022 to think about new proof within the case, a choose rejected theories that pneumonia and different diseases brought about Roberson’s loss of life. Curtis.
‘Elevated execution charge’
Roberson is considered one of a number of males scheduled to be executed subsequent month in america, the place capital punishment legal guidelines are determined by particular person states.
Derrick Ryan Dearman, convicted of murdering 5 individuals in a 2016 residence assault in Alabama, will face deadly injection the identical day as Roberson.
Thomas Eugene Creech, convicted of six murders, together with the beating loss of life of a fellow inmate in 1981, will obtain a deadly injection on Nov. 13, about 9 months after the state failed in its first try to execute him, unable to execute it. discover a viable vein to manage the deadly drug.
UN human rights spokesman Seif Magango issued a press release expressing concern in regards to the “rising charge of executions” in america, which killed six individuals in a 12-day interval final month.
A kind of executed was Emmanuel Littlejohn, who was killed by deadly injection final month regardless of a parole board in Oklahoma recommending his life be spared.
One other man, Marcellus Williams, whose homicide conviction was questioned by a prosecutor, was additionally executed by deadly injection in September.
“We urge america to hitch the rising world consensus in favor of common abolition of the loss of life penalty, starting by shortly imposing a moratorium on executions,” Magango stated.