{"id":1447589,"date":"2025-10-08T04:39:29","date_gmt":"2025-10-08T09:39:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/?p=1447589"},"modified":"2025-10-09T04:38:57","modified_gmt":"2025-10-09T09:38:57","slug":"robert-roberson-remains-hopeful-as-he-faces-another-execution-date","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/?p=1447589","title":{"rendered":"Roberson hopeful as he faces another execution date"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"LIVINGSTON (AP) \u2014 Robert Roberson<\/a> was calm and hopeful as he pondered his mortality and whether he could again avoid becoming the first person in the U.S. executed for a murder conviction tied to the diagnosis of shaken baby syndrome<\/a>.<\/p>\n

With days to go before his scheduled Oct. 16 execution<\/a>, Roberson maintained his innocence in the 2002 death of his 2-year-old daughter, Nikki Curtis, in the east Texas city of Palestine. He is set to die by lethal injection nearly a year to the day after a group of Texas lawmakers, who say he is innocent, secured an extraordinary last-minute court reprieve as Roberson waited outside the death chamber in Huntsville.<\/p>\n

Roberson said he was placing his hopes for another execution stay in the hands of his lawyers, his supporters and God.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not going to stress out and stuff because I know God has it, you know. He\u2019s in control. No matter what, God\u2019s in control, you know, and he does have the last say, you know,\u201d Roberson, 58, told The Associated Press last week as he sat behind a glass partition in the visiting area of the Polunsky Unit in Livingston, where Texas’ male death row inmates are housed.<\/p>\n

During an hourlong interview, Roberson said he thinks about his daughter every day and what kind of life she would have today.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors at Roberson\u2019s 2003 trial argued he hit his daughter and violently shook her, causing severe head trauma and that she died from injuries related to shaken baby syndrome. Roberson\u2019s lawyers and some medical experts say his daughter died not from abuse but from complications related to pneumonia. They say his conviction was based on flawed and now outdated scientific evidence.<\/p>\n

The diagnosis of shaken baby syndrome refers to a serious brain injury caused when a child\u2019s head is hurt through shaking or some other violent impact, like being slammed against a wall or thrown on the floor.<\/p>\n

Roberson\u2019s attorneys have argued his undiagnosed autism helped convict him as authorities and medical personnel felt he didn\u2019t act like a concerned parent because his flat affect was seen as a sign of guilt.<\/p>\n

A last-minute stay of execution<\/h4>\n

Last year, Roberson was on the verge of being put to death when a flurry of last-minute legal maneuvering<\/a> on the night of his scheduled execution, including an unprecedented intervention<\/a> by a bipartisan group of Texas lawmakers, stayed his lethal injection<\/a>. In July<\/a>, a judge set the new execution date, Roberson’s third.<\/p>\n

During his interview with the AP, Roberson often would not keep eye contact and would repeat words or phrases \u2014 behaviors that experts say are associated with autism.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey assumed (guilt) because of the way I was acting, you know. And I didn\u2019t know I was autistic, you know, until years and years later, you know,\u201d said Roberson, who wasn\u2019t diagnosed with autism until 2018.<\/p>\n

Roberson\u2019s supporters and his legal team are again holding rallies and asking state and federal appeals courts and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott to halt his execution. His supporters include both liberal and ultraconservative lawmakers<\/a>, Texas GOP megadonor and conservative activist Doug Deason, bestselling author John Grisham and Brian Wharton, the former police detective who helped put together the case against him.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe whole world is watching. Texas, do not kill this innocent man,\u201d Wharton said during a rally Saturday outside the Texas Capitol building in Austin.<\/p>\n

Attorney general and others insist Nikki died of child abuse<\/h4>\n

The office of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, as well as some medical experts and other family members of Nikki, maintain the girl died because of child abuse and that Roberson had a history of hitting his daughter.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been a long time coming. \u2026 In my opinion he did it, 100%,\u201d Matthew Bowman, Nikki’s half brother, told reporters in July. Bowman declined to speak with the AP.<\/p>\n

Abbott’s office did not immediately reply to emails seeking comment. Abbott has the power to grant a one-time 30-day reprieve.<\/p>\n

Roberson said he never hurt his daughter and had been working to turn his life around and take care of Nikki after spending time in prison for burglary and theft by check.<\/p>\n

\u201cI never shook her or hit her,\u201d Roberson said, adding he never disciplined his daughter \u201cbecause she was so tiny.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shaken baby syndrome has come under scrutiny in recent years as some lawyers and medical experts have argued the diagnosis has wrongly sent<\/a> people to prison<\/a>. Prosecutors and medical societies<\/a> say it remains valid.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s no longer a mystery what happened to Nikki. It was not shaking. It was her chronic, serious health conditions,” Gretchen Sween, one of Roberson\u2019s lawyers, said at Saturday\u2019s rally. “A crime didn\u2019t occur.\u201d<\/p>\n

But in a Sept. 26 op-ed in The Dallas Morning News<\/a>, three pediatricians, including two with the Yale School of Medicine, said they reviewed the case and \u201care convinced that Nikki was a victim of child abuse.\u201d<\/p>\n

Roberson says he’s optimistic he will get a chance to prove innocence<\/h4>\n

Roberson was arrested after he took Nikki to a hospital when she became unresponsive following a fall off their bed. He said he had never heard of shaken baby syndrome.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was bad enough losing my little girl. And then when they accused me of it, I couldn\u2019t believe it,\u201d Roberson said.<\/p>\n

In a press release issued after Roberson\u2019s execution was delayed last year as well as in recent court filings, Paxton\u2019s office has stressed that \u201cthis was no mere shaken baby case but involved a child who was beaten and received multiple blows to the head.\u201d Paxton\u2019s office said the jury \u201cdid not convict Roberson on the basis of \u2018Shaken Baby Syndrome.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Yet one of the jurors who convicted Roberson, Terre Compton, told lawmakers last year that, \u201ceverything that was presented to us was all about shaken baby syndrome. That is what our decision was based on.\u201d<\/p>\n

Grisham, who is writing a book about the case, said Roberson’s trial \u201cwas grossly unfair\u201d because his autism contributed to people believing he was guilty and his defense lawyers told jurors it was a case of shaken baby syndrome.<\/p>\n

Roberson said he remains optimistic he will one day get a chance to prove his innocence with a new trial.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not scared to die, but I\u2019m not ready to die, you know. I would like to believe God has more for me to do and stuff, you know,\u201d Roberson said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

LIVINGSTON (AP) \u2014 Robert Roberson was calm and hopeful as he pondered his mortality and whether he could again avoid becoming the first person in the U.S. executed for a murder conviction tied to the diagnosis of shaken baby syndrome. With days to go before his scheduled Oct. 16 execution, Roberson maintained his innocence in … Continue reading Roberson hopeful as he faces another execution date<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":61,"featured_media":1447848,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/wp-content\/media\/2025\/10\/ROBERTROBERSON.png","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[177],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1447589","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news-archive-archives"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-06 17:14:48","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\/10\/ROBERTROBERSON.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1447589","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\/61"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1447589"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1447589\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1447860,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1447589\/revisions\/1447860"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1447848"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1447589"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1447589"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1447589"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}