Texas man faces execution in shaken baby syndrome case

Oct. 16 (UPI) -- A Texas man could become the first person executed over a conviction case based on shaken baby syndrome even though a detective who helped set those wheels in motion now says he is innocent.

The Anderson County District Court on Tuesday denied Robert Roberson's motion to stop his execution warrant for the 2002 death of his 2-year-old daughter, allowing his planned Thursday execution in Huntsville, Texas to move forward.

A special meeting of the Texas House Criminal Jurisprudence Committee in Austin Wednesday stands as possibly Roberson's last chance to avoid the execution.

In the meantime, police detective Brian Wharton, who played a role in getting Roberson on death row, joined protesters pleading for his life.

"Let me just say, Robert is an innocent man," Wharton said, according to CBS News. "But more than that, he is a kind man. He is a gentle man. He is a gracious man."

Roberson's supporters and his attorney claim that he was wrongfully arrested and convicted 20 years ago after he took his daughter to a hospital emergency room when she fell out of bed in Palestine, Texas.

She was seriously ill and died a week later. Roberson was arrested because of a doctor's pre-autopsy hypothesis that the girl died from Shaken Baby Syndrome.

"I'm enraged, I'm heartbroken and we are not giving up this fight," Gretchen Sween, one of Roberson's attorneys, said, adding that she has also filed a new motion in the case, according to KETK-TV.

"God please be with us this time, because just last week, Texas highest criminal court declared the science used to convict Robertis not reliable and yet he can't have the evidence even considered."

Prosecutors have held fast to the shaken baby syndrome claim but advocates for Roberson said evidence of his daughter's undiagnosed pneumonia, medication that suppressed her breathing along with the accidental fall and other factors "entirely explained" her death.

Roberson has maintained his innocence over the past two decades.