A Texas prisoner who is facing execution having been sent to death row on the basis of “shaken baby syndrome”, a child abuse theory that has been widely debunked as junk science, has had his petition to the US supreme court denied.
The country’s highest court issued its denial on Monday morning giving no explanation. Robert Roberson, 56, who was sent to death row in 2003 for shaking his two-year-old daughter Nikki to death, had appealed to the justices to take another look at his case focusing on the largely discredited forensic science on which his conviction was secured.
The court’s decision leaves Roberson’s life in jeopardy. Having come within four days of execution in 2016, he has already exhausted appeals through Texas state courts and must now rely on the mercy of the Republican governor Greg Abbott who rarely grants clemency.
“Robert Roberson is an innocent father who has languished on Texas’s death row for 20 years for a crime that never occurred and a conviction based on outdated and now refuted science,” the prisoner’s lawyer, Gretchen Sween, said.
Sween added: “To lose a child is unimaginable. To be falsely convicted of harming that child is the stuff of nightmares.” Nikki died in hospital on 1 February 2002 after she fell into a comatose state in Roberson’s home in Palestine, Texas. Pediatric doctors detected symptoms including brain swelling which at the time were considered to be certain proof of child abuse and violent shaking.
Largely on the basis of that evidence, Roberson was sentenced to death.
In the intervening years, however, new evidence has been uncovered that suggests that not only is Roberson potentially innocent but that the crime for which he was convicted of never took place. Leading scientists have questioned the reliability of shaken baby syndrome, both as a medical diagnosis and as a forensic tool in criminal prosecutions, pointing to more than 80 alternative causes that can explain the symptoms without violence having occurred.
At least 32 people have been exonerated for crimes based on shaken baby syndrome forensics. Last month, an appeals court in New Jersey ruled that the theory was “junk science” and “scientifically unreliable”.
In Nikki’s case, several of the alternative causes that scientists have identified for the symptoms linked to shaken baby syndrome have been found to apply to the toddler. The girl had been ill with a fever of 104.5F (40.3C) shortly before she collapsed, had undiagnosed pneumonia, and had been given medical pills that are no longer considered safe for children as they can be life-threatening.
At his 2003 trial, Roberson was portrayed by prosecutors as a cold and calculating father who displayed no emotion. After his conviction, though, the inmate was diagnosed with autism which put those qualities in a completely different light. …
Abolish the death penalty.
Period.
I dont care how much someone may deserve death for their actions i beleive
- Life imprisoment and loss of liberty is a better punishment as they have to live with their actions and regret for the rest of their miserable lives
- The fact that people can and definately DO get wrongly convicted and the chance of taking someones life away without the slim, but possible, chance of finally being exonorated is horrifying.
\3. A civilised society doesn’t have the right to take a life for any reason other than last-ditch self-defence
\4. A life sentence is cheaper than the death penalty
(The latter point pales in comparison to the previous one imo, but it’s good to stick in there for those who don’t find life so sacrosanct as the rest of us)
(Edit: I don’t know how to make bulletpointed numbers start from not 1 without having backslashes visible)
Looks like it’s not even the police’s fault this time, just the court system’s. Since according to the article the detective who led the case against him is now calling for a review of his case in light of new developments. Don’t get me wrong, fuck the police, but when one does something right should they not be encouraged.
From the headline, I thought he was put on death row for teaching or otherwise perpetuating junk science. The real story is much more depressing.
It’s a shame he’s in Texas. This case has two things going for it that conservatives absolutely love: junk science and the death penalty.
I need an editor and nominate you – tweaked a word in the headline, and now it makes better sense.
Well, the supreme court is filled with republicans who do not have the best track records when it comes to understand (or take seriously) anything related to science. I would not be surprized if some of them believed in creationism, homeopathy, astrology, or similar junk.
much like the clothing brand, and the pizza, “supreme” here is not a mark of quality.
LPT: if your a man never be alone with anyone who is not also a man. Anything can be made up or invented against you
This makes me literally, not figuratively, feel ill. And I feel powerless to help.
