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PETITION: STOP THE OCTOBER 17 EXECUTION OF ROBERT ROBERSON, AN INNOCENT FATHER.
https://innocenceproject.org/petitions/justice-for-robert-roberson/
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PLEA TO SCIENTISTS AND MEDICAL PROFESSIONALS FROM KATHLEEN HUNTER, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF THE CENTER FOR INTEGRITY IN FORENSIC SCIENCE:
Please consider signing on to the letter below for Robert Roberson. He is scheduled to be executed on 10/17. The whole team would be so grateful for any support folks can provide.
This fall, the legal team for Robert Roberson will be filing a clemency application with the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles and Texas Governor Greg Abbott. The Board has to recommend clemency (the commutation of the death sentence to a lesser penalty or a reprieve) for the Governor to grant it.
The clemency application will include a letter of support from scientists and medical professionals that raises concerns about the Shaken Baby Syndrome hypothesis and lends credibility to the actual cause of Niki's death (the undiagnosed chronic viral pneumonia).
We have created a Google Form to make it as easy as possible for individuals to sign: https://forms.gle/
On the form, we ask for email addresses for the sole purpose of communicating with signatories; no contact information will be shared publicly or with the Board or Governor. Names and affiliations will be made public, however, as part of the broader communications strategy (i.e. in a press release about the clemency filing).
We are seeking signatures by the end of August.
Thanks so much for considering this request.
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PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "Our understanding is that highly qualified specialists in the fields of lung pathology, neuropathology, forensic pathology, pediatric radiology, and medical toxicology have undertaken a thorough review of all available medical records and the autopsy file and have concluded that Mr. Roberson’s child died as the result of severe, undiagnosed chronic viral pneumonia compounded by a secondary acute bacteria pneumonia. The double pneumonia was reportedly extremely severe, to the extent that the infection had progressed to sepsis. Sepsis reflects a system-wide infection due to failure to fight off advanced disease—and thus a profoundly ill child. The new experts’ correlated opinions also show that the child’s sepsis resulted in Disseminated Intravascular Coagulation (DIC), identified in lab results that were never considered at the time of Mr. Roberson’s original trial and initial appeals."
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LETTER: To David Gutierrez, Chairman of The Texas Board of PardonsTexas Board of Pardons, and board members, re Robert Roberson, execution scheduled for October 17, 2024.
GIST: "As scientists and medical professionals with decades of experience in an array of
disciplines, we write to urge you to recommend that Governor Abbott grant clemency to
Robert Roberson by commuting his sentence or granting a reprieve of his scheduled
October 17, 2024, execution so that the courts have time to review the compelling new
evidence of his innocence.
We understand that Mr. Roberson’s case was tried in 2003 as a “Shaken Baby” case, with
medical experts attesting that the child’s intracranial condition could only be explained as
an inflicted head injury with the mechanism of injury being some unknown combination of
“shaking” and “impact.”
There was no differential diagnosis undertaken at that time because, in 2003, presuming
abuse was recommended pursuant to the Shaken Baby Syndrome hypothesis,
then treated as medical orthodoxy.
Today, no reputable medical doctor would fail to conduct a thorough, multi-disciplined exploration of all possible causes
of death because it is now known that many phenomena—including accident short falls and
naturally occurring disease—can cause the same intracranial conditions that “mimic”
inflicted head injury.
The new evidence that has come to light, and which has not yet been considered by any
court in this case, is the precise cause of Mr. Roberson’s chronically ill two-year-old
daughter’s death.
That determination required a multi-disciplinary approach, as it often
does in these complex cases.
Our understanding is that highly qualified specialists in the fields of lung pathology,
neuropathology, forensic pathology, pediatric radiology, and
medical toxicology have undertaken a thorough review of all available medical records and
the autopsy file and have concluded that Mr. Roberson’s child died as the result of severe,
undiagnosed chronic viral pneumonia compounded by a secondary acute bacterial
pneumonia.
The double pneumonia was reportedly extremely severe, to the extent that her
infection had progressed to sepsis. Sepsis reflects a system-wide infection due to failure to
fight off advanced disease—and thus a profoundly ill child.
The new experts’ correlated opinions also show that the child’s sepsis resulted in
Disseminated Intravascular Coagulation (DIC), identified in lab results that were never
considered at the time of Mr. Roberson’s original trial and initial appeals.
DIC, a clotting disorder, would have caused an increased tendency to bleed and contributed to the
intracranial bleeding that was mistakenly interpreted as an inflicted head injury.
It has also now been determined that, in the days leading up to Nikki’s final collapse, she
was given double prescriptions for Phenergan/promethazine—one in suppository form
and one in a cough syrup that also included codeine.
These dangerous, respiratory- suppressing medications were prescribed by physicians unaware of her
pneumonia and
would have only further hastened her respiratory failure, and not addressed her infections.
Phenergan/promethazine now comes with an FDA “black box warning” against prescribing
it to children under two or with respiratory conditions—precisely because of the risk of
causing respiratory failure and sudden death.
That is, this medication suppresses breathing; it does not treat a respiratory illness like pneumonia.
A medical toxicologist has now determined that post-mortem results of drug screens show that the child had ingested far more promethazine than would ever have been reasonable, a phenomenon likely explained by the double prescriptions from two different doctors in the same week.
Additionally, a pediatric radiologist has concluded that the child had only a single, minor
impact site on her head, not “multiple impact sites,” as suggested by the medical examiner,
who did not review the CT head scans.
This single impact site is consistent with the report
of a short fall that may have started the initial subdural bleed. She developed brain swelling
after she ceased breathing as a result of highly compromised lungs devastated by
pneumonia.
The combination of the severe pneumonia and septic shock, the dangerous prescription
medications, the radiological evidence, and her DIC entirely explain her medical findings
which were mistakenly deemed to be due to inflicted head trauma.
In other words, there was no homicide. Mr. Roberson should not have been convicted, let alone
convicted and sentenced to death.
In 2002, when this child was brought to the emergency room by her father, the consensus
in against medical community was that whenever a child had the triad of symptoms observed
in Nikki: bleeding under the dural membrane surrounding the brain; brain swelling; and
bleeding in the eyes, that child must have been violently shaken, and possibly struck
against a blunt surface.
The consensus in the medical community at that time was that
naturally occurring illnesses or short falls with an impact to the head could not cause this
triad of symptoms.
The medical consensus also presumed that violent shaking caused
immediate brain damage so whoever had been caring for the child when she lost
consciousness must have been the perpetrator.
Caregivers, like Mr. Roberson, who denied
doing anything to hurt the child, were perceived as liars.
Each of the shaken baby premises considered medical orthodoxy in 2002-2003, when Mr.
Roberson was arrested and tried, has since been entirely undermined by evidence-based
science.
None of these shaken baby principles were grounded in science and, long after Mr.
Roberson’s trial, each has been debunked.
If the Board and Governor Abbott do not intervene, Mr. Roberson would become the first
person in the United States to be executed based on the discredited shaken baby
hypothesis.
The new evidence of Mr. Roberson’s innocence must be considered by
Governor Abbott or the courts before Texas makes a irreversible mistake."
PUBLISHER'S NOTE: I am monitoring this case/issue/resource. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog for reports on developments. 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/charlessmith. Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at: http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2011/05/charles-smith-blog-award-nominations.html 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: Publisher: The Charles Smith Blog.
- SEE BREAKDOWN OF SOME OF THE ON-GOING INTERNATIONAL CASES (OUTSIDE OF THE CONTINENTAL USA) THAT I AM FOLLOWING ON THIS BLOG, AT THE LINK BELOW: HL:
https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/120008354894645705/4704913685758792985
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FINAL WORD: (Applicable to all of our wrongful conviction cases): "Whenever there is a wrongful conviction, it exposes errors in our criminal legal system, and we hope that this case — and lessons from it — can prevent future injustices."
Lawyer Radha Natarajan:
Executive Director: New England Innocence Project;
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FINAL, FINAL WORD: "Since its inception, the Innocence Project has pushed the criminal legal system to confront and correct the laws and policies that cause and contribute to wrongful convictions. They never shied away from the hard cases — the ones involving eyewitness identifications, confessions, and bite marks. Instead, in the course of presenting scientific evidence of innocence, they've exposed the unreliability of evidence that was, for centuries, deemed untouchable." So true!
Christina Swarns: Executive Director: The Innocence Project;
