Article of Interest: Author John Grisham Says Texas Plans to Execute Robert Roberson, An Innocent Man

Best-selling author of The Innocent Man and former criminal defense lawyer John Grisham “never, not once” believed that any of the hundreds of clients he represented were wrongfully convicted. In a September 5, 2024, op-ed, Mr. Grisham writes that he just assumed the criminal justice system always got it right. Now, writing for the second time about Robert Roberson’s case, Mr. Grisham acknowledges that was “a wrong assumption.” He argues that “Robert Roberson is innocent because the evidence developed in recent proceedings, but so far disregarded by the Texas courts, suggests that no crime occurred.”

Mr. Grisham details the flawed science and investigation that led to the wrongful conviction of Robert Roberson and the failure of the court system to correct its errors. Mr. Roberson was convicted and sentenced to death for causing the 2002 death of his 2-year-old daughter Nikki after state attorneys told jurors that the only way Nikki could have died was from violent shaking in concert with a blunt impact. Mr. Grisham notes that while shaken baby syndrome has been used to convict parents and caregivers across the United States, Mr. Roberson would be the first person executed because of this now-discredited theory.

Mr. Grisham writes that “for a parent, nothing could be worse than losing a child—except for being falsely accused of causing the child’s death because your disability makes you show your emotions in non-neurotypical ways.” Mr. Grisham believes that “an impaired man has been condemned because he could not explain his daughter’s complex medical situation when he brought her to a hospital.” Like former detective Brain Wharton, who helped put Mr. Roberson behind bars, Mr. Grisham “feel[s] compelled to speak out before Texas again commits the heinous crime of executing an innocent man.”

Mr. Roberson is scheduled to be executed on October 17, 2024.