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AUSTIN – Just 8 days after he execution hearing for death row inmate Robert Roberson of Palestine, his attorneys are asking the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals (CCA) to stay his execution set for this fall in his case involving the death of his 2-year-old daughter, Nikki Curtis.<\/p>\n
Our news partner KETK had the opportunity to speak with Roberson\u2019s Attorney, Gretchen Sween, Thursday morning about her reaction to the execution date being set and the two motions filed in the CCA.<\/p>\n
On July 16, Roberson\u2019s hearing led the Smith County District Court Judge Austin Reeve Jackson to order his execution to be set for 6 p.m. on Oct. 16, 2025. \u201cThe ruling was very disappointing, and that\u2019s why we are now turning around to stop the execution date that we thought shouldn\u2019t have been set in the first place,\u201d Sween said.
\n\u201cBut we were grateful to be able to have a hearing, and that the judge made an effort to get Roberson there. I think it was evident there\u2019s a lot of interest in what\u2019s going on in this case.\u201d<\/p>\n
Only a few days after the hearing, Roberson\u2019s defense team filed two motions in the CCA: an emergency motion for stay of execution and a motion for oral argument.<\/p>\n
This motion asks that Roberson\u2019s recently set execution date be stayed to \u201censure the court has sufficient time to complete its review of his pending subsequent application for habeas corpus relief.\u201d<\/p>\n
In Feb. 2025, Roberson filed a subsequent application for habeas corpus relief, which is still pending at the CCA. \u201cIt is reasonable to assume that the CCA has been carefully considering the wealth of evidence proving Robert\u2019s innocence. Comprehensive medical and scientific explanations for his daughter\u2019s condition both at the time of her final collapse and then two days later after extensive medical intervention, have been presented to the Court, including new expert medical opinions filed in February,\u201d Sween said.
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\u201cThe motion tries to make clear that we are asking [the stay of execution] to take precedence because it\u2019s an emergency,\u201d Sween said. \u201cThere\u2019s now this time bomb of the execution date so hopefully that will be taken up first.\u201d<\/p>\n
The stay application gives a detailed history of Roberson\u2019s efforts to prove his innocence and \u201cthe court\u2019s failure, so far, to engage with that evidence.\u201d The stay also explained that Roberson has acted \u201cdiligently to discover and present additional evidence supporting his actual innocence claim.\u201d<\/p>\n
This motion has never been held before the CCA since Roberson\u2019s innocence was first raised in 2016. His defense said that no court has reviewed the \u201cmountain of evidence\u201d proving that the death of his daughter was a result of \u201cillness, medical error and accident, none of which was Roberson\u2019s fault.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have made an unusual quest, grant us oral argument, allow us to come in and have both sides argue why the case has not been handled appropriately, why there is a reason to grant relief, or at least what the standards are that should be governing a case involving this junk science claim,\u201d Sween said. <\/p>\n
\u201cThese motions make very clear that there is compelling evidence of innocence that has yet to be considered, and there are many issues that the entire state could use some guidance from the highest criminal court,\u201d Sween said.<\/p>\n
On January 31, 2002, Roberson took Curtis to Palestine Regional Medical Center with severe trauma to her head, and the following day, she died from her injuries.<\/p>\n
In 2003, an East Texas jury decided, beyond a reasonable doubt, that Roberson caused the death of his daughter by violently shaking her. Medical staff and the lead detective on the case were suspicious of Roberson\u2019s seemingly cold demeanor at the time of his daughter\u2019s death, viewing it as an indication of guilt.
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Roberson\u2019s legal team explained that he was a special education student who dropped out of school in the ninth grade and has been diagnosed with autism, which can impact a person\u2019s ability to communicate and show emotion. The defense said that Roberson was convicted under a \u201cnow-debunked shaken baby syndrome theory\u201d for the death. <\/p>\n
\u201cThere are some misunderstandings about how serious the flaws are in this case, rampant false testimony on top of just the discredited shaken baby testimony that no one would give today because there has been too much scientific advance saying none of those assumptions are legitimate anymore,\u201d Sween said.<\/p>\n
The evidence used to convict Roberson sparked controversy in the Texas Legislature in 2024, ahead of his scheduled execution. The Texas House Committee on Criminal Jurisprudence subpoenaed Roberson to appear before their panel to delay his execution. The committee took up the issues around Roberson\u2019s case in part because Texas has a junk science law that could have kept Roberson off of death row.<\/p>\n
On July 15, Roberson\u2019s new execution date was set in Palestine for his daughter\u2019s death.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
AUSTIN – Just 8 days after he execution hearing for death row inmate Robert Roberson of Palestine, his attorneys are asking the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals (CCA) to stay his execution set for this fall in his case involving the death of his 2-year-old daughter, Nikki Curtis. Our news partner KETK had the opportunity … Continue reading Robert Roberson\u2019s attorney asks Court of Appeals for stay of execution<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1429509,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/wp-content\/media\/2025\/07\/Screenshot-2025-07-24-125043-e1753379520620-201x200.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[177],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1429137","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news-archive-archives"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-08 10:34:58","action":"change-status","newStatus":"trash","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/wp-content\/media\/2025\/07\/Screenshot-2025-07-24-125043-e1753379520620-201x200.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1429137","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1429137"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1429137\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1429822,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1429137\/revisions\/1429822"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1429509"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1429137"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1429137"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1429137"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}