SUB-HEADING: "Roberson has gained bipartisan support from lawmakers and medical experts who say he was convicted on faulty evidence of “shaken baby syndrome.”
PHOTO CAPTION: "The bill comes after the Texas Supreme Court allowed the state to schedule a new execution date for inmate Robert Roberson, whose initial execution was delayed last month."
GIST: "A Texas lawmaker has introduced legislation to eliminate the death penalty in the state as Texas prepares to kill convicted child killer Robert Roberson.
Democrat state Rep. John Bucy III filed the bill for the upcoming legislative session. "I think I've been opposed to the death penalty my whole life as I've thought about its use, and should it exist in our society," Bucy said, according to Fox 7.
"Financially, if you just want to look at it economically, we spend more money to execute than to keep someone in prison, so it's really a lose-lose situation with a high risk stake if we get it wrong," he continued. The bill comes after the Texas Supreme Court allowed the state to schedule a new execution date for inmate Robert Roberson, whose initial execution was delayed last month, Fox News reported.
Roberson was sentenced to death in 2003 for killing his 2-year-old daughter, Nikki Curtis. He would be the first person in the US to be executed over a conviction tied to “shaken baby syndrome,” a diagnosis that has been questioned by some medical experts. His lawyers say Nikki actually died from other health issues such as pneumonia and that new evidence proves his innocence.
Roberson was scheduled to be put to death on Oct. 17 before the state Supreme Court issued a stay to delay his execution shortly before it was set to take place. A new execution date for Roberson has not been set, but it is certain to proceed unless Republican Gov. Greg Abbott grants a 30-day reprieve.
Abbott did not move to do so before Roberson’s original execution date and his office challenged the subpoena tactic used by lawmakers, accusing them of overstepping their power. The state’s all-Republican high court agreed, ruling that “under these circumstances the committee’s authority to compel testimony does not include the power to override the scheduled legal process leading to an execution,” wrote Republican Justice Evan Young, issuing the opinion of the court.
Roberson has gained bipartisan support from lawmakers and medical experts who say he was convicted on faulty evidence of “shaken baby syndrome,” which refers to a serious brain injury caused when a child’s head is hurt through shaking or some other violent impact, like being slammed against a wall or thrown on the floor.
"I feel like I've gotten more engaged with this Robert Roberson case and wanted to make sure that we're continuing this conversation about the lack of humanity tied to the death penalty," Bucy said. Texas has executed nearly 600 people since 1982, according to Texas Coalition to Abolish The Death Penalty executive director Kristin Houle Cuellar.
"Which is far more than any other state in the nation," Houle Cuellar told Fox 7. "We have quite a reputation when it comes to the use of the death penalty in Texas."
Houle Cuellar said that there have been fewer death sentences in the state in the last decade, which she partially attributes to the introduction in 2005 of life without parole.
"Prosecutors have used that discretion in opting not to seek the death penalty," Houle Cuellar said. "Even in about 30 percent of the cases that they've taken to trial where they've sought the death penalty, jurors have rejected it."
Since 2007, multiple Texas lawmakers have unsuccessfully sought to abolish the death penalty. But Bucy says there is now enough momentum regarding the issue to reintroduce legislation to eliminate the practice.
"While it's an uphill battle to end the death penalty in Texas, we've seen the number of executions go down," he said. "I think sentiment is changing, and I also think as we see these specific cases come to life, and we start learning the specific stories, people are going to get more and more concerned about the possibility of getting it wrong."
https://www.themirror.com/news/us-news/texas-lawmaker-proposes-abolish-death-824931
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;
