Court to review Roberson’s case

TYLER – A Smith County judge will review evidence in Robert Roberson’s case to see if the previous Dallas-based Shaken Baby ruling would warrant a new trial. The state and the defense met on Zoom with Smith Co. judge, Austin Reeve-Jackson, on Friday for a status hearing. Judge Jackson ruled to move forward to re-evaluate evidence from the 2003 trial, 2004, and 2005 appeals.

Roberson is challenging his 2003 conviction for the killing of his 2-year-old daughter, Nikki. This hearing stems from an early 2000s Dallas-based case that let Andrew Roark go free because new scientific discoveries debunked the shaken baby theory that convicted him to 35 years in prison.

“I do feel a bit morally affronted that the state’s answer seems to be about trying to inject bias against Mr. Roberson based on a completely bogus representation of record when this is supposed to be about science,” Roberson’s attorney, Gretchen Sween, said.

Judge Jackson will review evidence presented in the original trial, 2004- 2005 appeal, and determine if the Roark precedent applies to Roberson.

“The science has changed since the time of trial. This court even recognized that in the ’03, that’s in the findings that were adopted by the court. The ‘oh five’05 application does not rely on new changes in science, since the 2003-2004 applications were filed,” Texas Attorney General’s Office, Travis Bragg said.

Roberson’s legal team argues that the Shaken baby theory that put him away has been discredited.

“The evidence that might be relevant to an actual innocence claim is almost all still relevant to the change science claim,” Sween said.

In Roak’s case, he was released on bond in 2012 and fully exonerated in 2024. In the case of Roberson, how Judge Jackson rules could be the difference between life outside of a prison cell and his deathbed.

The state and defense will send in their arguments to Judge Jackson by May 29.