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Texas state decide orders pause for controversial ‘shaken child’ execution | Dying Penalty Information


A state decide in Texas has issued a last-minute choice to pause the execution of Robert Roberson, a person convicted in a controversial case of shaken child syndrome.

Roberson is believed to be the primary individual ever sentenced to dying in the US for an alleged killing linked to the syndrome.

However on Thursday, with solely hours to go till the sentence was carried out, Travis County Civil District Court docket Decide Jessica Mangrum issued a brief restraining order halting the execution.

That call precipitated an avalanche of authorized actions that continued late into the evening. After Decide Mangrun’s choice was introduced, the Texas Court docket of Prison Appeals lifted the injunction and allowed the execution to proceed.

However then the Texas Supreme Court docket weighed in, issuing a keep of execution.

Roberson was convicted of homicide in 2003 for the dying of his two-year-old daughter Nikki Curtis a yr earlier.

However he has strongly maintained his innocence. Specialists have additionally forged doubt on the proof used to convict him, and the last-minute order has introduced reduction to those that believed the execution would characterize a miscarriage of justice.

“He’s an harmless man, and we’re very near killing him for one thing he didn’t do,” Brian Wharton, the lead detective who investigated Curtis’s dying. He has since grow to be a vocal proponent for commuting Roberson’s sentence.

Robert Robertson
Texas lawmakers meet with Robert Roberson at a jail in Livingston, Texas, on September 27 [Criminal Justice Reform Caucus via AP Photo]

On the coronary heart of the case was the prosecutors’ accusation that the toddler Curtis died from shaken child syndrome, a phrase used to explain head trauma stemming from the abuse of youngsters youthful than 5.

Critics, nevertheless, have dismissed shaken child syndrome as an unproven analysis, based mostly on outdated science and research of uncertain accuracy.

In January 2002, Roberson introduced his daughter to an emergency room, the place scans confirmed inside mind trauma. Curtis had been sick with a fever within the days prior, and Roberson stated she had fallen out of her mattress.

Some medical consultants have urged she possible died on account of issues from pneumonia slightly than abuse by Roberson, as prosecutors alleged.

His case has introduced nationwide consideration to Texas, the place a gaggle together with conservative lawmakers, prison justice reform advocates and medical officers have forged doubt on Roberson’s guilt.

Roberson’s legal professionals additionally argued that authorities misconstrued signs of their shopper’s autism as a scarcity of emotion after Curtis’s dying.

Prosecutors had highlighted Roberson’s seemingly stoic nature as proof of his guilt. However since his conviction, Roberson has been recognized with autism, which might have an effect on the best way folks categorical themselves.

“Texas plans to execute Robert Roberson subsequent Thursday — regardless of a conviction based mostly on junk science. Even former detectives on his case consider Roberson is harmless,” the state department of the American Civil Liberties Union stated in a social media put up final week.

Thursday’s execution, nevertheless, was halted after a committee within the Republican-controlled state Home of Representatives petitioned for a restraining order, in an effort to purchase extra time.

Plenty of lawmakers within the Texas Home chamber — each Republicans and Democrats — had lobbied for the case to get one other look.

The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles had nonetheless rejected Roberson’s bid for clemency on Wednesday, and the US Supreme Court docket denied a request for a keep on the execution earlier on Thursday.

Robertson was scheduled to die on Thursday by deadly injection at a state penitentiary in Huntsville, Texas.

The usage of deadly injection as a type of execution continues to be controversial within the US and has resulted in quite a few “botched” efforts that critics say prompted useless struggling for the condemned.

A 2023 Gallup ballot discovered that folks within the US proceed to assist the dying penalty for these convicted of homicide by a margin of 53 to 44 %. Nevertheless, 50 % of respondents stated that the dying penalty was utilized unfairly, whereas 47 % stated it was utilized pretty.



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