Broad Coalition Supports Robert Roberson’s Clemency Petition

On September 17, 2024, attor­neys for Texas death row pris­on­er Robert Roberson filed a clemen­cy peti­tion accom­pa­nied by let­ters from hun­dreds of sup­port­ers, includ­ing emi­nent sci­en­tists and med­ical pro­fes­sion­als, a bipar­ti­san group of Texas leg­is­la­tors, and for­mer lead Detective Brian Wharton, urg­ing the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles and Governor Greg Abbott to reduce Mr. Roberson’s sen­tence. Mr. Roberson is cur­rent­ly sched­uled to be exe­cut­ed on October 17, 2024. He was con­vict­ed and sen­tenced to death in 2003 for the death of his two-year-old daugh­ter, Nikki, who med­ical experts have deter­mined died from severe viral and bac­te­r­i­al pneu­mo­nia that doc­tors failed to diag­nose, not from abuse or Shaken Baby Syndrome. Despite three new expert reports show­ing Nikki died of pneu­mo­nia, no court has been will­ing to con­sid­er the evi­dence that clears Mr. Roberson of any crime.

Mr. Roberson’s peti­tion states that ​“Nikki’s death…was not a crime — unless it is a crime for a par­ent to be unable to explain com­plex med­ical prob­lems that even trained med­ical pro­fes­sion­als failed to under­stand at the time.” Because of advances in sci­ence since 2003, it is now under­stood that Nikki was suf­fer­ing from a severe lung infec­tion. With the reex­am­i­na­tion of lung tis­sue col­lect­ed dur­ing her autop­sy, experts deter­mined ​“that both a chron­ic inter­sti­tial viral pneu­mo­nia and a sec­ondary acute bac­te­r­i­al pneu­mo­nia were rav­ish­ing [Nikki’s] lungs, caus­ing sep­sis and then sep­tic shock.” In the days lead­ing to Nikki’s death, Mr. Roberson repeat­ed­ly brought her to the local Emergency Room and her pedi­a­tri­cian, both of whom sent them home with med­ica­tions that would only make Nikki’s con­di­tion worse. Doctors pre­scribed Nikki with Phenergan and codeine — both of which are no longer pre­scribed to chil­dren because they are known to sup­press one’s abil­i­ty to breathe.

More than 30 med­ical and sci­en­tif­ic experts have writ­ten to the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles in sup­port of Mr. Roberson. These pro­fes­sion­als write that ​“if Nikki died today, instead of pre­sum­ing Nikki’s death was caused by abuse, no doc­tor would con­sid­er Shaken Baby Syndrome as the cause of Nikki’s death because SBS is now con­sid­ered a diag­no­sis of exclu­sion; Nikki’s pneu­mo­nia, the extreme lev­els of dan­ger­ous med­ica­tions found in her sys­tem dur­ing her autop­sy, and her fall from the bed explain why Nikki died.” 

When Mr. Roberson rushed Nikki to the hos­pi­tal, staff inter­pret­ed his seem­ing­ly blank reac­tion to Nikki’s con­di­tion as cal­lous­ness, when in fact, Mr. Roberson’s autism explains his non-neu­rotyp­i­cal response to the cri­sis at hand. Christopher Banks, President and CEO of the Autism Society of America, in a let­ter sup­port­ing Mr. Roberson, writes that ​“Robert Roberson’s Autism, which affects social and emo­tion­al pro­cess­ing, led to a lack of vis­i­ble emo­tion­al response — a char­ac­ter­is­tic mis­in­ter­pret­ed dur­ing his tri­al as a sign of guilt.” Jacquie Benestante, Executive Director of the Autism Society of Texas, writes that ​“the prosecution’s reliance on mis­judg­ment and bias against Mr. Roberson’s Autistic behav­ior sug­gests a rush to judge­ment sub­stan­tial­ly influ­enced by crim­i­nal­iz­ing dis­abil­i­ty.” She adds that ​“we are call­ing for jus­tice and clemen­cy, urg­ing Governor Abbot and the Board of Pardons and Paroles to con­sid­er the com­pelling evi­dence and pre­vent a wrongful execution.”

A bipar­ti­san group of 84 Texas leg­is­la­tors also wrote to the Board, urg­ing them to rec­om­mend clemen­cy for Mr. Roberson ​“out of grave con­cern that Texas may put him to death for a crime that did not occur.” In their let­ter to the Board, the law­mak­ers empha­size that despite a law passed more than 10 years ago that allows chal­lenges to con­vic­tions based on dis­proven or false sci­ence, lit­tle relief has been grant­ed. The law­mak­ers are ​“dis­mayed to learn that this law has not been applied as intend­ed and has not been a path­way to relief — or even a new tri­al— for peo­ple like Mr. Roberson.” They add that ​“in his case, sig­nif­i­cant sci­en­tif­ic and med­ical evi­dence now shows that his daugh­ter Nikki, who was chron­i­cal­ly ill, died of a com­bi­na­tion of nat­ur­al and acci­den­tal caus­es, not the debunked shak­en baby syn­drome hypoth­e­sis that State used con­vict Mr. Roberson.”

Brian Wharton, the lead detec­tive inves­ti­gat­ing Nikki’s death, who arrest­ed Mr. Roberson based on the hos­pi­tal doctor’s Shaken Baby hypoth­e­sis before an autop­sy could be per­formed, has come to believe that Mr. Roberson is inno­cent, and that no crime actu­al­ly occurred. In a let­ter urg­ing the gov­er­nor to grant clemen­cy for Mr. Roberson, Mr. Wharton writes that he ​“will for­ev­er be haunt­ed by the role [he] played in help­ing the State put this inno­cent man on death row.” Mr. Wharton added that ​“Robert’s case will for­ev­er be a bur­den on my heart and soul. But it is not too late for Texas to change course and stop his execution.”