STORY: "Court Halts Texas Man's Execution in "Shaken Baby" Case," by reporter Johnathan Silver, published by the Texas Tribune on June 17, 2016.
GIST: "The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals on Thursday halted the upcoming execution of Robert Roberson, who was sentenced to death for killing his two-year-old daughter in 2002. The appeals court sent the case back to trial court in Anderson County after Roberson's legal team argued that his conviction was based on junk science. His execution had been scheduled for June 21. Roberson, condemned for the death of his two-year-old daughter Nikki in Palestine, has denied he murdered her, insisting she stuck her head after falling out of bed. But the Anderson County district attorney's office argued at trial that Roberson acted intentionally, pointing to experts who testified that Nikki's injuries were consistent with signs of shaking, bruising and blunt force trauma. Other witnesses testified that Roberson had a bad temper and would shake and spank Nikki when she wouldn’t stop crying.
Roberson's attorneys at trial did not deny he killed his daughter but argued he suffers from mental lapses due to a brain injury. His appeals attorneys argued that he didn't have a fair trial because his mental health expert was not allowed to testify to that brain injury claim. A second legal team last year entered the fray, though, and argued that Roberson's appeals attorneys had conflicts of interest, which could have complicated his push for relief, and requested another attorney join the team to review their work. Both legal teams appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court with separate arguments to get Roberson's case another look. Both teams were unsuccessful, and his execution was scheduled. Roberson is currently represented by attorneys from Texas Defender Service and the Office of Capital and Forensic Writs. The latter group handled the execution stay request approved Thursday. Backed by affidavits from medical and other scientific experts who reviewed the case, Roberson's lawyers argued in the stay request that Nikki did not have a broken neck, an injury often tied to Shaken Baby Syndrome. They add that Nikki was sickly and drew the attention of CPS investigators due to head injuries and choking incidents she suffered before Roberson entered her life. Also, prosecutors had said at trial that Nikki was sexually assaulted, a claim later debunked and abandoned but an inflammatory one that jurors nonetheless heard, his attorneys argued. New evidence shows that Roberson is actually innocent of capital murder and that "the state relied on false, misleading and scientifically invalid testimony to obtain his conviction," his attorneys wrote in the filing. They also asserted that Roberson's right to due process was violated at trial because prosecutors introduced "false forensic science testimony that current science rejects." Experts, his defense counsel and the district attorney's office did not take seriously Roberson's claim that Nikki fell, attorneys with the Office of Capital and Forensic Writs wrote in the request. "Instead of taking Robert’s explanation about a fall seriously or exploring all possible causes of the injury sustained by a chronically ill child who had been at the doctor’s office with 104.5-degree temperature only two days before," Roberson's attorneys wrote, "a tragedy was hastily deemed a crime and a father, doing the best he could to care for his daughter despite severe cognitive impairments, was branded a murderer.""
The entire story can be found at: '
https://www.texastribune.org/2016/06/17/appeals-court-halts-east-texas-mans-execution/
PUBLISHER'S NOTE:
I have added a search box for content in this blog which now encompasses several thousand posts. The search box is located near the bottom of the screen just above the list of links. I am confident that this powerful search tool provided by "Blogger" will help our readers and myself get more out of the site.
The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be found at:
http://www.thestar.com/topic/
Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at:
http://smithforensic.blogspot.
Please send any comments or information on other cases and issues of interest to the readers of this blog to:
hlevy15@gmail.com;
Harold Levy;
