AUSTIN (Nexstar) — Robert Roberson, the man convicted on capital murder charges for the death of his two-year-old daughter, Nikki, in 2003, will get another chance to prove his innocence in a district court after the state’s highest criminal court blocked his execution scheduled for next week.
Texas court blocks execution of death row inmate Robert Roberson
This is the second time in less than a year that Roberson’s execution was halted. Last October, a group of bipartisan lawmakers led a dramatic last-minute legal battle that stayed Roberson’s execution. Roberson has maintained his innocence since 2003.
A 5-4 decision from the all Republican court granted Roberson’s application to stay his execution under the state’s 2013 junk science law that allows prisoners to request a second look at their case when the science used to convict is found to be debunked.
What happens next?
The case now returns to the district court in Anderson County. “We have won the battle but we have certainly not won the war,” Gretchen Sween, Roberson’s attorney, said in a virtual news conference following the decision.
Roberson’s team will now have to prove to a court that he should be awarded a new trial based on a ruling made last year by the Criminal Court of Appeals. In that case, Andrew Roark was convicted by a jury of injury to a child. The prosecution in that case argued that Roark injured the child through Shaken Baby Syndrome (SBS), and he was sentenced to 35 years.
Roark filed a petition saying new scientific evidence contradicted the evidence used to convict him at trial. The Criminal Court of Appeals granted his application and ruled that the science behind SBS had evolved, and if it had been presented at the time of his trial, he would not have been found guilty.
Roberson’s defense team claims the facts in that case parallel his own. “We have to fight this battle essentially again, but in light of that change of law,” Sween said to reporters. “We will be able to go back to a new judge at the trial level and utilize the Roark case to make that case that these cases are materially indistinguishable.”
Lawmakers react
However, State Rep. Mitch Little, R – Lewisville, argues the Roberson case is not an SBS case, but a blunt force trauma case. He said he was dismayed and disappointed with the outcome.
“Everyone who put their hands on Nikki from the time she came to the hospital, until the time she passed away, saw this case for what it was, which is a set of intentionally inflicted traumatic injuries on her body,” Little said.
Little argued that the expert evidence the defense is offering to show the SBS theory is debunked was available before Roberson’s trial, which would disqualify the junk science law. He points to the dissenting opinion written by judges Mary Lou Keel and Gina G. Parker.
“He has never shown his evidence to have been previously unavailable or material as required by
Article 11.073, nor has he overcome the subsequent writ bar,” the judges wrote. They went on to conclude in their opinion, “Applicant claims that SBS has been ‘debunked,’ but he is wrong; SBS is a matter of ongoing and acrimonious debate.”
A group of bipartisan lawmakers disagrees with Little’s viewpoint and hopes Roberson is successful in his attempt for a new trial.
“Mr. Roberson, going back over two decades, has never had due process and he has never had a fair trial, and so I hope the truth is going to come out here and the justice will be served,” State Rep. Brian Harrison, R – Midlothian, said.
State Rep. John Bucy, D – Austin, argues the junk science law needs to be followed in Roberson’s case. “We do the best with science at the time, and as that continues to evolve, we need to take another look,” Bucy said. “That’s how we have fair justice in our system.”
He, along with other lawmakers, visited Roberson on death row on Wednesday. He said Roberson remained confident he would prevail even a week before he was supposed to be put to death.
“This is a man full of hope and faith, and he maintains that faith that one day he will have justice for himself and for his daughter,” Bucy explained.
The next hearing in Roberson’s case has not been scheduled, but Sween said she has reached out to the Attorney General’s office, which is representing the state in this case, to schedule a time to get back in the courtroom.
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