PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "Roberson’s lawyers have argued his daughter died of natural and accidental causes, including “severe, undiagnosed” pneumonia. According to court documents, she had a 104.5-degree fever days before she died; her medical history included chronic infections undeterred by multiple strains of antibiotics and “alarming breathing apnea spells.” The appeal also references the case of Andrew Wayne Roark, a Dallas County man who was cleared of wrongdoing in a shaken baby syndrome case late last year. In a news release announcing Roark’s exoneration, the Dallas County district attorney’s office said advancements in science and medicine no longer supported the prosecution’s theory at trial. A statement from Roberson’s legal team Wednesday said the case “is indistinguishable from Roberson’s in all material respects.”
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STORY: Robert Roberson makes another plea for innocence with state’s highest criminal court," by Reporter Jamie Landers, published by The Dallas Morig News, on February 19, 2025. (Jamie Landers is a breaking news reporter at The Dallas Morning News. She is a graduate of The Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication in Phoenix, where she studied journalism and political science. Jamie previously reported for The Arizona Republic and Arizona PBS.)
SUB-HEADING: "If not exonerated, the filing also asks the Court of Criminal Appeals to grant the death row inmate a new trial, or send his case back to district court."
Robert Roberson III, the East Texas man who narrowly avoided execution last fall in a case that upended the state’s judicial system, is again asking the courts to declare his innocence.
If not exonerated, the application for relief announced Wednesday also asks the Court of Criminal Appeals to grant Roberson a new trial, or send his case back to district court for “further fact-finding” based on new evidence his attorneys believe undermine the integrity of his conviction.
Roberson, 58, was convicted of capital murder in 2003 for reportedly shaking his 2-year-old daughter, Nikki, to death. His prosecution relied on proving Nikki showed a triad of symptoms associated with “shaken baby syndrome,” a medical determination that has since come under scrutiny by scientists and doctors.
The latest appeal cites new examples of the controversy, including a joint statement from 10 independent pathologists “attesting to the unreliability of the cause and manner of death conclusions” in Nikki’s autopsy report.
Roberson’s lawyers have argued his daughter died of natural and accidental causes, including “severe, undiagnosed” pneumonia. According to court documents, she had a 104.5-degree fever days before she died; her medical history included chronic infections undeterred by multiple strains of antibiotics and “alarming breathing apnea spells.”
The appeal also references the case of Andrew Wayne Roark, a Dallas County man who was cleared of wrongdoing in a shaken baby syndrome case late last year. In a news release announcing Roark’s exoneration, the Dallas County district attorney’s office said advancements in science and medicine no longer supported the prosecution’s theory at trial.
A statement from Roberson’s legal team Wednesday said the case “is indistinguishable from Roberson’s in all material respects.”
Roberson, formerly of Palestine, has maintained his innocence through more than two decades on death row and two previous execution dates.
He was first scheduled to die by lethal injection in 2016 before his attorney, Gretchen Sween, argued his conviction was based on “false, misleading, and scientifically invalid testimony.”
The case was sent back to the courts, and under the state’s “junk science” statute, Roberson’s appeals team presented an argument stating the shaken baby theory has not held up. But an Anderson County judge said the newly introduced evidence, if presented in 2003, wouldn’t have changed Roberson’s fate.
His second execution was then scheduled for Oct. 17, 2024. In an unprecedented move the night before, a bipartisan coalition of lawmakers subpoenaed Roberson to testify before the House Committee on Criminal Jurisprudence about how the junk science law was applied in his appeals. The subpoena spurred a chaotic legal battle that ended in a stay from the Texas Supreme Court.
Two attempts by the committee to bring Roberson to the state Capitol to testify have since been thwarted by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.
A third execution date has not been scheduled."
The entire story cannot be be read at:
https://www.dallasnews.com/author/jamie-landers/
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;
