Amid calls for intervention, execution looms for Robert Roberson, potentially first in U.S. tied to shaken baby syndrome
PALESTINE, Texas — There is still no sign that state leaders or the courts will halt Thursday's execution of death row inmate Robert Roberson despite a growing chorus of voices demanding that they intervene and stop it.
Tuesday, an Anderson County District Court rejected Robert Roberson's motion to stop the execution warrant, and in less than 48 hours, the 57-year-old is scheduled to die in Huntsville for the 2002 murder of his 2-year-old daughter.
Roberson could become the first person executed in the U.S. for a murder conviction tied to shaken baby syndrome.
A demonstration outside the courthouse in Palestine Tuesday where Roberson was convicted of capital murder 20 years ago.
Those protesting Thursday's scheduled execution included the police detective who helped send Roberson to death row, Brian Wharton.
"Let me just say, Robert is an innocent man," said Wharton. "But more than that, he is a kind man. He is a gentle man. He is a gracious man."
Roberson's impending visit to the execution chamber in Huntsville will be the subject of a special meeting of the House Criminal Jurisprudence Committee in Austin on Wednesday morning.
Tuesday, State Representative Brian Harrison, a Republican from Waxahachie, posted a comment to our story last night about the execution:
"I want Texas to lead in basically everything. But executing potentially innocent people when it's possible no crime ever occurred is not one of them.
"So, really, at this point, Robert's fate is in the hands of Governor Abbott and the Board of Pardons and Paroles," said Vanessa Potkin, a lawyer with The Innocence Project which is pushing Abbott and the state pardon and parole board to intervene.
Potkin said Roberson remains optimistic as his execution date nears.
"Even though the clock is ticking and we're just within about two days of his scheduled execution, he is a man of faith, and he remains hopeful that justice will prevail," Potkin said. "Robert Roberson is absolutely innocent. we're in a unique position in his case that not only, do we know that the evidence used against is, has been disproven and is erroneous, but we actually know, medically why his daughter died, and she was suffering from two types of pneumonia, a fatal pneumonia."
Whether Roberson's daughter was the victim of multiple health issues or severe child abuse is a question that seems harder to answer now than it was 20 years ago.