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lite.cnn.com - on gopher - inofficial
ARTICLE VIEW:
Texas committee approves subpoena for death row inmate ahead of his
execution
By Dakin Andone and Ashley Killough, CNN
Updated:
8:07 PM EDT, Wed October 16, 2024
Source: CNN
The Texas Committee on Criminal Jurisprudence has voted to subpoena
Robert Roberson to testify as it considers the application of the law
in his case, ahead of his scheduled execution Thursday for the murder
of his 2-year-old daughter – a crime his advocates say did not
happen.
It is unclear what the decision means for the scheduled execution, but
CNN has reached out to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice and
Gov. Greg Abbott’s office for comment.
It calls for Roberson to “provide all relevant testimony and
information concerning the committee’s inquiry.” The chair can also
issue additional subpoenas for relevant testimony.
“This work is hard, but it is the hard work that is always worth
doing,” Moody said upon approving the subpoena.
In a post on X, Rep. Brian Harrison said he was “proud” to bring up
the motion and “grateful” for the support of his colleagues.
Calls to spare ’s life were growing before Wednesday’s decision.
While Roberson’s supporters continue to fight to spare his life,
their efforts to stop his execution have so far been rejected. On
Wednesday, the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles declined to recommend
clemency in Roberson’s case after his attorneys requested his death
sentence be commuted to a lesser penalty – or that the inmate be
granted a 180-day reprieve to allow time for his appeals to be argued
in court.
If he’s put to death by lethal injection Thursday evening,
Roberson’s attorneys say he would be the first person in the US
executed based on a conviction that relied on an allegation of – a
misdiagnosis in Roberson’s case, they argue, and one they say has
been discredited.
Without the recommendation of the parole board, GOP Gov. Greg Abbott is
limited to issuing a one-time, 30-day reprieve.
“We urge Governor Abbott to grant a reprieve of 30 days,”
Roberson’s attorney, Gretchen Sween said Wednesday, “to allow
litigation to continue and have a court hear the overwhelming new
medical and scientific evidence that shows Robert Roberson’s
chronically ill, two-year-old daughter, Nikki, died of natural and
accidental causes, not abuse.”
While child abuse pediatricians remain firm on the , Roberson’s
attorneys say there is ample evidence his daughter, Nikki Curtis, did
not die of child abuse.
At the time of her death, she had double pneumonia that had progressed
to sepsis, and she had been prescribed two medications now seen as
inappropriate for children that would have further hindered her ability
to breathe, they argue, citing medical experts. Additionally, she had
fallen off a bed, and was particularly vulnerable in her sickly
condition, Roberson’s attorneys say.
Other factors, too, contributed to his conviction, they argue. Doctors
treating Nikki “presumed” abuse based on her symptoms and common
thinking at the time of her death without exploring her recent medical
history, the inmate’s attorneys claim. His behavior in the emergency
room – viewed as uncaring by doctors, nurses and the police, who
believed it a sign of his guilt – was actually a manifestation of
autism spectrum disorder, which went undiagnosed until 2018.
“Very early on, Robert was the focus of everything to the exclusion
of any other possibilities,” said Brian Wharton, the former
Palestine, Texas, detective who led what he now believes was a
too-narrowly focused investigation into Nikki’s death. He has since
joined Roberson’s supporters in fighting to spare his life.
Roberson’s innocence claim underscores an inherent risk of capital
punishment: a potentially innocent person could be put to death. At
least 200 people – 18 in Texas – have been exonerated since 1973
after being convicted and sentenced to die, according to the .
The appeals court denied the inmate’s latest appeal on Wednesday.
That court last week ordered a new trial for a man sentenced to 35
years in prison for his conviction of injury to a child in a case that
also relied on a shaken baby argument.
Roberson’s attorneys have filed a request for a stay of execution
with the US Supreme Court, arguing his due process rights were violated
when the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals declined to consider
additional evidence the inmate says would support his innocence claim.
Texas urged the Supreme Court in a filing Wednesday evening to deny
Roberson’s emergency appeal, claiming that the arguments he has
raised are “unworthy of the court’s attention.”
The courts, Texas officials said, “gave Roberson the means and the
opportunity to make claims, marshal evidence in support of his cause,
and address the adverse evidence adduced against him.” Just because
Roberson was denied, the state officials told the Supreme Court,
“does not mean that he was denied notice or an opportunity to be
heard.”
“The record shows that the state habeas proceedings adequately
complied with due process,” Texas told the Supreme Court in its
brief.
State legislators voice support
In the meantime, Roberson’s many supporters are taking their own
steps to call attention to his case in hopes of pressing the state into
halting the execution.
The Texas Committee on Criminal Jurisprudence is holding a hearing
Wednesday where it will hear testimony “related to capital
punishment” and a Texas law – commonly referred to as the – which
opened a path for someone to challenge their conviction if there is new
scientific evidence unavailable at the time of their trial.
While Roberson’s name is not mentioned in a notice about the hearing,
his advocates say he should benefit from this law – and a member of
the committee, Rep. Jeff Leach, a Republican from Collins County, told
reporters Tuesday the hearing would “shine a light” on Roberson’s
case “for all 31 million Texans to hear and watch and to see.”
“And we’re hopeful that by Thursday evening, we’re able to secure
that pause button in this case,” said Leach, who supports the death
penalty but has emerged as a key critic of its administration in cases
featuring .
The committee – made up of both Republicans and Democrats – has
also urged the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals to halt the execution,
citing the “junk science” law. Committee members want Roberson to
be granted a stay while lawmakers consider amendments to the “junk
science” law, they wrote in a letter brief filed before the court.
“It is beyond dispute that medical evidence presented at Mr.
Roberson’s trial in 2003 is inconsistent with modern scientific
principles,” the lawmakers wrote.
“We believe it would be a stain on the conscience of the State of
Texas for an execution to proceed while efforts are underway to remedy
deficiencies in how the law was applied to this case.”
A bipartisan group of more than 80 Texas legislators has supported
Roberson’s case, and his request for clemency. Rep. Joe Moody, chair
of the criminal jurisprudence committee, last week the state needed to
“pump the brakes before this stains Texas justice for generations.”
The author John Grisham – a board member of the Innocence Project,
which has backed Roberson’s claim – also called for mercy Tuesday
in an .
“The evidence is assembled and available to the Texas authorities,
but no one with the power to stop Roberson’s execution is paying
attention,” Grisham wrote. “The courts on the basis of
technicalities, and even politicians’ pleas have been ignored.”
Diagnosis focus of courtroom debate
Roberson’s attorneys are not disputing babies can and do die from
being shaken. But they contend more benign explanations, including
illness, can mimic the symptoms of shaking, and those alternative
explanations should be ruled out before a medical expert testifies with
certainty that the cause of death was abuse.
Shaken baby syndrome is accepted as a by the and supported by child
abuse pediatricians who spoke with CNN. The condition, first described
in the mid-1970s, has for the past 15 or so years been considered a
type of “abusive head trauma” – a broader term used to reflect
actions other than shaking, like an impact to a child’s head.
Criminal defense lawyers also have oversimplified how doctors diagnose
abusive head trauma, child abuse pediatricians say, noting many factors
are considered to determine it.
“The conclusion is simply (Nikki) was a victim of abusive head
trauma. Unequivocally,” Dr. Sandeep Narang, a child abuse
pediatrician and a lawyer, told CNN after he said he was asked by a
supporter of Roberson’s defense to review trial testimony in the
case.
Still, the diagnosis has been the focus of debates in courtrooms across
the country. Since 1992, courts in at least 17 states and the US Army
have exonerated 32 people convicted in shaken baby syndrome cases,
according to .
Child abuse pediatricians like Dr. Antoinette Laskey, chair of the
American Academy of Pediatrics’ Council on Child Abuse and Neglect,
dispute these statistics. She pointed to that found just 3% of all
convictions in shaken baby syndrome cases between 2008 and 2018 were
overturned, and only 1% of them were overturned because of medical
evidence.
“I don’t know what to say about the legal controversy,” Laskey
told CNN of the courtroom debate (She did not speak to Roberson’s
case). “This is real, it affects children, it affects families … I
want to help children; I don’t want to diagnose abuse: That’s a bad
day.”
Last week, however, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals ordered a new
trial for a man sentenced to 35 years in prison for his conviction of
injury to a child in a case that also relied on a shaken baby syndrome
argument. In its argument, the court wrote “scientific knowledge has
evolved regarding SBS.”
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