<body><div>The execution of Robert Roberson, the man convicted of killing his 2-year-old daughter Nikki Curtis in 2002, has been paused by a Travis County, Texas judge.Roberson had been scheduled to be executed by lethal injection on Thursday at 6 p.m., but a subpoena to Roberson issued by Texas lawmakers on Wednesday has paused the execution at least for a few days.Roberson would be the first person in the U.S. executed for a crime involving “shaken baby syndrome.”<figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=2x59SU_0wBQjqPZ00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=2x59SU_0wBQjqPZ00" width="1200" height="638" ><figcaption>Shaken baby syndrome has been widely dismissed as junk science by experts in the last decade.</figcaption></figure>"This is an extraordinary remedy," Republican state Rep. Jeff Leach of Plano said during arguments Thursday. "But it is not undue." Shaken baby syndrome has been widely dismissed as junk science by experts in the last decade. For this reason, both Democrats and Republicans on the Texas House Judiciary Committee believe that Roberson deserves a new trial.Leach told CBS News that over 80 Texas legislators signed a letter “calling for the pause button into Roberson's execution," saying his testimony is vitally important.Lawmakers issued the subpoena after the Texas State Board of Pardons and Parole denied Roberson’s request for clemency on Wednesday. Roberson’s attorneys also made an appeal to the U.S Supreme Court to stay the execution but were denied on Thursday.Justice Sonya Sotomayor said in her ruling on Thursday "Supreme Court is powerless to act without a colorable federal claim, and because the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles declined to recommend clemency, only one remedy remains: an executive grant of a reprieve delaying Roberson's execution by thirty days."<figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=4fmaL8_0wBQjqPZ00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=4fmaL8_0wBQjqPZ00" width="1200" height="675" ><figcaption>The lead detective on the case, Brian Wharton, has also come out and said he believes that Roberson is innocent.</figcaption></figure>His attorneys with the Innocent Project said they were confident that Roberson’s life would be spared.Supporters of Roberson have expressed doubts about the doctor’s initial diagnosis saying that the child did not die from injuries related to shaken baby syndrome. Rather supporters and his attorneys say new evidence shows that the child died from complications related to pneumonia and not from abuse.The lead detective on the case, Brian Wharton, has also come out and said he believes that Roberson is innocent."Let me just say, Robert is an innocent man," said Wharton. "But more than that, he is a kind man. He is a gentle man. He is a gracious man."However, the Anderson County District Attorney's Office, who prosecuted Roberson said in court documents in 2022, after a hearing to consider new evidence, that they maintain that the new evidence does not exonerate Roberson. The judge in the hearing deniedThe 57-year-old Roberson has maintained his innocence throughout the case. In the last decade, 34 people have been exonerated of convictions related to shaken baby syndrome, according to the National Registry of Exonerations.</div></body>

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Texas death row inmate Robert Roberson has execution halted minutes before lethal injection

The execution of Robert Roberson, the man convicted of killing his 2-year-old daughter Nikki Curtis in 2002, has been paused by a Travis County, Texas judge. Roberson had been scheduled to be executed by lethal injection on Thursday at 6 p.m., but a subpoena to Roberson issued by Texas lawmakers on Wednesday has paused the execution at least for a few days.