The Texas Supreme Court has blocked the scheduled execution of a man on Thursday night, who would have been the first person in the United States to be executed for a murder conviction linked to shaken baby syndrome.
The last-minute ruling, which temporarily saves Robert Roberson—convicted of killing his two-year-old daughter in 2002—followed a wave of urgent legal challenges and weeks of pressure from both Republican and Democratic lawmakers who believe he is innocent and argue that his conviction was based on unreliable scientific evidence.
In the hours before the decision, Roberson had been confined to a prison cell just a few feet away from the country’s busiest execution chamber at the Walls Unit in Huntsville, as he awaited confirmation of whether he would be executed by lethal injection.
Texas Department of Criminal Justice spokesperson Amanda Hernandez, who spoke with Roberson following the court’s decision to halt his execution, said, “He was shocked, to say the least.
“He praised God and he thanked his supporters. And that’s pretty much what he had to say.”
She stated that Roberson would be taken back to the Polunsky Unit, approximately 45 miles (72 kilometres) east, where the state’s male death row facility is situated.
Roberson has consistently maintained his innocence. His legal team, along with a bipartisan coalition of Texas legislators, medical professionals, and others, acknowledge the reality of head and other injuries resulting from child abuse.
However, they contend that his conviction was founded on flawed and now obsolete scientific evidence. They further assert that fresh findings indicate Curtis passed away due to complications arising from severe pneumonia.
However, prosecutors argued that Roberson’s new evidence fails to refute their claim that Curtis’s death resulted from injuries caused by her father.
Frances Ibiefo
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