Texas Supreme Court has ordered that the execution of convicted Shaken Baby father Robert Roberson go ahead despite last-minute attempts at getting a retrial.
Several weeks after putting a hold on his lethal injection due to new evidence being presented, the court granted Roberson an unprecedented pause while lawmakers went back to court to plead his innocence once more.
Roberson was convicted more than 20 years ago of having shaken his two-year-old daughter to death. As he showed no emotion throughout the court case, the jury felt compelled to declare him guilty, and so the judge sentenced him to the maximum penalty available.
Death row father’s autism had not been diagnosed
During his 20 years on death row, campaigners have been fighting for a re-trial, including the same police investigator who arrested Roberson in the first place. While in jail, his autism was diagnosed, which explained his cold, emotionless appearance which had so influenced the jury. Also, ‘shaken baby syndrome’ has since largely been discredited as ‘junk science’, while the real cause of death, according to the testimony of a coroner who performed a second post-mortem, was that the child had not been shaken at all and her condition had more been likely related to the pneumonia she was suffering but had not been diagnosed at the time.
In a 31-page decision, the Texas Supreme Court found that the legislative committee’s subpoena to block the execution had gone beyond the powers of the legislature and therefore rescheduled Roberson’s execution for December.
Roberson has still not been allowed to testify in court, leaving his lawyers little time to gain an appeal hearing in front of a judge.
