Robert Leslie Roberson is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection Thursday, despite overwhelming evidence suggesting he was wrongfully convicted in the 2002 death of his 2-year-old daughter Nikki. At the time, investigators focused on shaken baby syndrome, but in reality, Nikki had pneumonia in both lungs, pre-existing conditions for which she had been prescribed opioids now banned for children, and undiagnosed sepsis.
Brian Wharton, the former police detective who oversaw the investigation and ultimately arrested Roberson stated, “I was wrong. I didn’t see Robert. I did not hear Robert, but I can tell you now, he is a good man. He is a kind man. He is a gracious man. And he did not do what the state of Texas and I have accused him of.”
Wharton clarified that a series of misunderstandings and confirmation biases persuaded him that Roberson had killed his daughter.
For example, when Roberson brought Nikki to the hospital, nurses, doctors and investigators noticed his lack of emotion, something that Wharton initially considered as a warning sign but now recognizes as a common trait in people with autism, like Roberson.
Wharton also recalled the intense emotional atmosphere in the hospital as doctors desperately tried to save Nikki’s life.
Investigators have ignored Roberson’s explanation that Nikki fell out of bed that night, attributing the injuries to other causes related to her health problems.
However, Wharton remained clear: “Robert is completely innocent, and we were completely wrong because we focused on the wrong things.”
A large number of people in Texas have mobilized loudly to demand that Roberson’s execution must be halted; prominent among them is a group of people who usually support the practice of the death penalty, and this emerges as a strong signal toward the case.
Last month, a bipartisan coalition of 84 Texas lawmakers called on the state’s Board of Pardons and Paroles to recommend clemency for Roberson, expressing their “out of grave concern that Texas may put him to death for a crime that did not occur.”
Moreover, 34 scientific and medical experts wrote to the committee, saying that if Nikki had died today, “no doctor would attribute her death to Shaken Baby Syndrome” because the condition “is now seen as a diagnosis of exclusion.”
The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles is considering whether to recommend clemency for Roberson, with potential intervention from Republican Governor Greg Abbott.
Abbott himself has described the death penalty as “Texas justice” and has presided over the execution of 76 inmates since taking office in 2015.
The U.S. Supreme Court could also intervene to halt Roberson’s execution, but its strongest chance of getting a reprieve probably lies with the Texas House Committee on Criminal Jurisprudence.
If Roberson’s execution proceeds, he would be the first person executed in a case associated with shaken baby syndrome, a diagnosis that many in the scientific community view as junk science.
