Robert Roberson denied clemency by Texas parole board, facing execution over shaken baby syndrome

Texas parole board has voted against clemency for man who could be first in US executed over shaken baby syndrome .

The parole board voted to not recommend that Robert Roberson’s death sentence be commuted to life in prison or that his execution be delayed, the Associated Press reported. The decision is a major setback for efforts by Roberson’s attorneys and a diverse coalition of individuals and groups to stop his lethal injection on Thursday.

Robert Roberson, 57, faces execution via lethal injection for the 2002 death of his daughter , Nikki Curtis, aged two, in Palestine, East Texas. Prosecutors said his daughter died from injuries caused by being violently shaken, also known as shaken baby syndrome. But Roberson defense team is claiming he was wrongfully convicted after taking his daughter to a hospital after she fell out of bed.

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Roberson, who has long proclaimed his innocence, has few options left. Gov. Greg Abbott can only grant clemency after receiving a recommendation from the board. Abbott does have the power to grant a one-time 30-day reprieve without a board recommendation. But in his nearly 10 years as governor, Abbott has halted only one imminent execution, in 2018 when he spared the life of Thomas Whitaker .

Earlier Wednesday, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals denied another request from Roberson to stay his execution. Roberson’s attorneys have asked the U.S. Supreme Court to stay his execution.

“We urge Governor Abbott to grant a reprieve of 30 days to allow litigation to continue and have a court hear the overwhelming new medical and scientific evidence that shows Robert Roberson’s chronically ill, two-year-old daughter, Nikki, died of natural and accidental causes, not abuse,” said Gretchen Sween, one of Roberson’s attorneys.

One of those who has been pushing to stop Roberson’s execution is Texas GOP megadonor and conservative activist Doug Deason. “I believe he is innocent,” Deason wrote in a post on X on Tuesday.

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Roberson’s scheduled execution has renewed debate over shaken baby syndrome, which is known in the medical community as abusive head trauma. His lawyers as well as the Texas lawmakers, medical experts and others say his conviction was based on faulty and now outdated scientific evidence related to shaken baby syndrome.

The diagnosis refers to a serious brain injury caused when a child’s head is hurt through shaking or some other violent impact, like being slammed against a wall or thrown on the floor.

Roberson’s supporters don’t deny head and other injuries from child abuse are real. But they say doctors misdiagnosed Curtis’ injuries as being related to shaken baby syndrome and that new evidence has shown the girl died not from abuse but from complications related to severe pneumonia.

The parole board has recommended clemency in a death row case only six times since the state resumed executions in 1982. In three of those cases — in 1998, 2007 and 2018 — death row inmates had their sentences commuted to life in prison within days of their scheduled executions. In two of the cases — from 2004 and 2009 — then-Texas Gov. Rick Perry rejected the parole board’s recommendation to commute a death sentence to life in prison and the two prisoners were executed.