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Regardless of a bipartisan refrain of calls to cease Texas dying row inmate Robert Roberson from turning into the primary individual within the nation executed for allegedly shaking a child to dying, the state’s parole board denied his intently watched clemency utility Wednesday, leaving his execution on monitor for Thursday.
The Texas Board of Pardons and Parole’s six members voted unanimously to disclaim the request. The choice got here as lawmakers raised issues that the courts weren’t correctly implementing a groundbreaking 2013 “junk science” regulation that was supposed to supply justice to folks convicted primarily based on scientific proof that has since modified or been debunked.
“It is not shocking that the criminal justice system failed Mr. Roberson so badly. What’s shocking is that, so far, the system has been unable to correct itself,” Gretchen Sween, Roberson’s attorney, said in a statement after the board’s vote, adding that Roberson’s team would ask Gov. Greg Abbott to issue a 30-day reprieve. “We pray that Governor Abbott does everything in his power to prevent the tragic, irreversible mistake of executing an innocent man.”
Whereas Abbott can concern a one-time reprieve, he can’t defy the board’s suggestion in opposition to clemency. Abbott’s workplace didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
The parole board’s determination got here because the thunderous marketing campaign to spare Roberson’s life continued. Brian Wharton, the lead detective in Roberson’s case who sided with the prosecution at trial, has referred to as for his exoneration, as has bestselling creator John Grisham. A massive majority of the Texas Home has requested the courts to take a second take a look at his case. Doug Deason, a GOP megadonor and Abbott ally, additionally publicly mentioned he believes in Roberson’s innocence, in response to the Houston Chronicle.
“I felt like God was pushing me and telling me that I needed to get involved in this case,” Deason instructed the Chronicle. “Let’s not put a man to death when there are some issues and open questions.”
Roberson, who was convicted of capital homicide in 2003 for the dying of his ailing 2-year-old daughter, Nikki Curtis, has maintained his innocence over 20 years on dying row.
“Governor Abbott, I did not do this,” Roberson mentioned in an interview with NBC Information’ Lester Holt that aired Oct. 3. “And I’m just hoping and praying that you do the right thing.”
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He has argued that his conviction was primarily based on an unfounded shaken child syndrome prognosis given to his daughter, which presumed abuse and didn’t take into account her extreme sickness earlier than her dying. Prosecutors have maintained that Nikki suffered a number of traumas and that there was clear proof of abuse — conclusions that Roberson’s attorneys dispute.
The 4 Democrats and 5 Republicans on the Texas Home Committee on Legal Jurisprudence urged the state’s highest felony court docket on Tuesday to remain Roberson’s execution by way of the 2025 legislative session, saying that the junk science regulation “has been applied in a manner that raises serious constitutional and equitable concerns.”
“It is beyond dispute that medical evidence presented at Mr. Roberson’s trial in 2003 is inconsistent with modern scientific principles,” the lawmakers wrote to the court docket, requesting a keep in order that the Legislature may take into account amendments to the regulation. “We believe it would be a stain on the conscience of the State of Texas for an execution to proceed while efforts are underway to remedy deficiencies in how the law was applied to this case.”
The courts have rejected all of his appeals to date, with the state’s highest felony court docket, on procedural grounds, declining on Wednesday to cease his execution. It beforehand denied his arguments, with out contemplating their deserves.
The refusal by the state’s highest felony court docket to think about Roberson’s argument that his conviction relied on a defective shaken child syndrome prognosis, lawmakers mentioned, mirrored a breakdown of due course of and a failure to implement the junk science regulation because the Legislature supposed.
“This was a pretty clear case where Robert Roberson did not have due process,” state Rep. Lacey Hull, R-Houston, mentioned on CNN on Tuesday. “Texans deserve to know that our justice system is fair and just, and we cannot say that right now.”
The Texas Home Legal Jurisprudence Committee held a listening to spotlighting Roberson’s case and the junk science regulation on Wednesday because the clemency suggestion loomed. Critics have argued that within the decade for the reason that invoice turned regulation, it has not often offered justice as supposed to wrongfully convicted people.
“We have one of the best junk science statutes in the nation here in Texas, and unfortunately it doesn’t seem like that was used here,” Hull mentioned on CNN. “Under the junk science statute, Robert Roberson deserves a new trial.”
The parole board has advisable clemency in simply one capital case out of the 85 functions it has thought-about over the previous decade.
Dozens of scientists, medical professionals, parental rights teams, organizations that advocate for folks with autism and religion leaders submitted letters in help of clemency together with Roberson’s utility.
Letters from his buddies and family members depicted a mild man of religion who remembered folks’s favourite colours and despatched handmade birthday playing cards to everybody he met.
“This man would never harm another person, especially not his small little baby girl!” Manuela Doris Roberson, whom Roberson married in 2022, wrote in a single letter. “Robert’s life is worth more to me, his children, his friends and loved ones than all the treasures of this world.”
