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ANDERSON COUNTY – Texas death row inmate Robert Roberson is seeking another stay of execution and a new trial after claiming the Anderson County Judiciary acted unconstitutionally multiple times in his case, citing new evidence brought to Roberson\u2019s legal team in June.<\/p>\n
Roberson was convicted in 2003 of killing his chronically ill 2-year-old daughter, Nikki Curtis, by violently shaking her before taking her to a hospital. A 125-page petition filed Wednesday in the 3rd District Court in Anderson County claims Nikki was taken off life support at the direction of her grandparents \u2014 despite Roberson being her sole conservator \u2014 only after representatives with the Anderson County Judiciary falsely told hospital staff the couple was Nikki\u2019s legal conservators. Roberson was arrested for capital murder after Nikki died.<\/p>\n
The filing also suggests that then 3rd District Court Judge Jerry Calhoon was improperly involved in the case and signed off on an order to provide Roberson\u2019s legal counsel despite his son, Mark Calhoon, being a prosecutor in Roberson\u2019s trial. The former judge did not preside over the trial.<\/p>\n
Jerry Calhoon also presided over Roberson\u2019s custody battle for Nikki with her grandparents, Larry and Verna Bowman, and revoked his custody after he was arrested. Mark Calhoon took over as 3rd District Court judge in 2007.<\/p>\n
The petition states that the new evidence was only made available because state Rep. Lacey Hull, R-Houston, learned of the Anderson County Judiciary\u2019s involvement in allowing Nikki\u2019s grandparents to remove her from life support. Hull provided an affidavit that was included in the filing.<\/p>\n
Hull met with representatives from Children\u2019s Medical Center of Dallas, where Nikki was taken off life support, during the legislative session to discuss a bill in February. During the meeting, she pointed out Roberson\u2019s legal custody, according to her affidavit. Hull said the representatives seemed unaware of Roberson\u2019s sole conservator rights until that meeting.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy perception was that CMCD became aware for the first time during this meeting with me in 2025 that hospital staff had been misinformed by [Anderson] County about who had authority to withdraw life-sustaining treatment from Mr. Roberson’s daughter Nikki when that action was taken,\u201d Hull said in the affidavit.<\/p>\n
After Attorney General Ken Paxton requested an execution date for Roberson, who is scheduled to be put to death on Oct. 16, Hull reached out to Roberson\u2019s attorney and informed her of her discussion with the hospital representatives.<\/p>\n
Hull was part of a bipartisan group of lawmakers who called for Roberson\u2019s clemency in 2024 before he was scheduled to be executed. His case became a flashpoint in the Legislature as lawmakers successfully managed to stall his execution by subpoenaing him for a committee hearing in October.<\/p>\n
At the center of public discussion on Roberson\u2019s conviction is shaken baby syndrome, which Nikki was diagnosed with and what Roberson\u2019s attorneys say prosecutors hinged his conviction on. Shaken baby syndrome has since become a contested diagnosis, as some research has suggested the symptoms used to identify the syndrome can also be caused by other factors, like short falls.<\/p>\n
Article originally published by The Texas Tribune. To read the originally published article, click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" ANDERSON COUNTY – Texas death row inmate Robert Roberson is seeking another stay of execution and a new trial after claiming the Anderson County Judiciary acted unconstitutionally multiple times in his case, citing new evidence brought to Roberson\u2019s legal team in June. Roberson was convicted in 2003 of killing his chronically ill 2-year-old daughter, Nikki … Continue reading Robert Roberson claims judicial misconduct in bid for new trial<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1436242,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/wp-content\/media\/2024\/10\/robersoncourt2-200x200.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[177],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1436238","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 01:49:11","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\/2024\/10\/robersoncourt2-200x200.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1436238","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=1436238"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1436238\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1436656,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1436238\/revisions\/1436656"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1436242"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1436238"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1436238"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1436238"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}