A man from Texas, who has been on death row, is set to be executed in October after being convicted for the death of his 2-year-old daughter in 2002. His execution, initially delayed last year due to doubts surrounding his guilt, is now scheduled.
According to Judge Austin Reeve Jackson, Robert Roberson is now slated to be executed on October 16 at 6 p.m. Jackson stated that this timing reflects “the reality of where we are.” This new date follows a year-long delay initiated by concerns raised by a bipartisan group of state legislators and others.
Roberson’s legal team, who represent the 58-year-old, expressed their disapproval of the judge’s decision. They argue that significant evidence exists showing he did not cause the death of his daughter, Nikki Curtis, and they point to the now-disputed shaken baby hypothesis that was central to the original case against him.
“Texans should be outraged that the court has scheduled an execution date for a demonstrably innocent man,” his attorney, Gretchen Sween, said in a statement to Fox News Digital.
Texas lawmakers meet with Robert Roberson at a prison in Livingston, Texas, on Friday, Sept. 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Criminal Justice Reform Caucus)
Roberson was convicted after prosecutors argued he killed his daughter by shaking her to death. But his lawyers have said Nikki actually died from other health issues such as pneumonia and that new evidence proves his innocence. His lawyers also said doctors had failed to rule out these other medical explanations for the child’s symptoms.
“I believe he is innocent for two distinct reasons,” Sween told Fox News Digital last year. “The theory that there was a crime that was used to convict him, which was then known as the shaken baby syndrome hypothesis, has been thoroughly discredited. There is no one now who would say the version of that hypothesis that was put before his jury as if it were scientific fact is legitimate.”
“Also, I know from the experts that had dug into his daughter’s medical records and examined the evidence that this exceedingly ill child died from undiagnosed pneumonia that was [ravaging] her lungs, combined with very dangerous prescription medications she was given in the last few days of her life,” she continued. “And it’s not to suggest that doctors did this intentionally. It’s just they didn’t know about the pneumonia.”
Roberson was scheduled to be put to death on Oct. 17, 2024, before the state Supreme Court issued a stay to delay his execution shortly before it was set to take place.
Robert Roberson and his daughter, Nikki. (Roberson Family)
The state House Committee on Criminal Jurisprudence issued a subpoena the day before Roberson’s scheduled execution for him to testify at a hearing about his case. The state Supreme Court paused the execution that night to review the committee’s request.
The court said in November that the committee should be allowed to hear his testimony, as long as a subpoena does not block an inevitable execution.
Roberson did not appear at subsequent House committee meetings after Paxton’s office pushed to prevent him from testifying at the state Capitol.
