Shaken Baby Syndrome: Robert Roberson; Texas: Joshua George; Pennsylvania; Jordan Clark; Pennsylvania: The Debunked "Shaken Baby Syndrome" hypothesis raises "serious doubts" in all of these capital cases, the Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC) reports in its 2025 'Innocence and Clemency' document, noting that, "Robert Roberson has been granted relief under Texas' junk science statute - and that: Two defen­dants in Pennsylvania fac­ing cap­i­tal charges in alleged SBS cas­es filed a peti­tion before the Pennsylvania Supreme Court alleg­ing that Washington County District Attorney Jason Walsh has demon­strat­ed a pat­tern of improp­er­ly threat­en­ing or seek­ing death sen­tences in vio­la­tion of the United States Constitution and the Pennsylvania Constitution. The peti­tion not only impli­cates the debunked sci­ence of SBS but also rais­es seri­ous alle­ga­tions of prosecutorial misconduct."

PUBLISHER'S NOTE: All too many many examples in this  of innocent people exposed to the death penalty in America — are set out in this important Death Penalty Information Center report which is well worth reading in its entirety. In this post I am highlighting a section of particular interest to our readers headed:  'Debunked "Shaken Baby Syndrome" Hypothesis  Raises Serious Doubts in Capital Cases.' All the more reason to abolish the death penalty wherever it exists.

Harold Levy: Publisher: The Charles Smith Blog.

----------------------------------------

REPORT: The Death Penalty  Information Center: 'The Death Penalty in 2025: Innocence  and clemency.'  

GIST: Robert Roberson, a Texas death row pris­on­er who has been on death row since 2002 for the death of his two-year-old daugh­ter, Nikki, received a stay of exe­cu­tion in October over con­cerns about the valid­i­ty of the evi­dence used to con­vict him. 

Mr. Roberson was sched­uled to be exe­cut­ed on October 16, 2025, but the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals halt­ed the exe­cu­tion on October 9, remand­ing his case to the dis­trict court for fur­ther con­sid­er­a­tion of his request for relief based upon relief offered in a sim­i­lar case, Ex parte Roark. 

Like Mr. Roberson’s case, Ex parte Roark also involved a con­vic­tion based on the now discredited  “Shaken Baby Syndrome” hypoth­e­sis (SBS), and the CCA grant­ed relief to Mr. Roark based on con­clu­sions that the sci­ence behind SBS is no longer sound. 

Mr. Roberson request­ed relief under Texas’ junk sci­ence statute, cre­at­ed in 2013, which allows pris­on­ers to chal­lenge their con­vic­tions if the evi­dence used against them relied on now out­dat­ed and/ or debunked sci­ence. 

Since the law’s cre­ation, no death row pris­on­er in the state has suc­cess­ful­ly secured a new tri­al or form of relief.

Mr. Roberson’s case has gar­nered nation­al atten­tion due to his com­pelling inno­cence claims.

 Numerous med­ical experts agree that Nikki’s death was caused by pneu­mo­nia and pre-exist­ing med­ical con­di­tions. 

The lead detec­tive in the orig­i­nal case has spo­ken pub­licly about his belief that Mr. Roberson is inno­cent, and even the judge who set his most recent exe­cu­tion date called the decision  “unfor­tu­nate” but acknowl­edged he had no legal basis to reject the Texas attor­ney general’s request for an exe­cu­tion date to be set.

 The involve­ment of the attor­ney gen­er­al, the gov­er­nor, and sev­er­al mem­bers of the Texas leg­is­la­ture inject­ed a com­pli­cat­ed polit­i­cal dimen­sion to the case pro­ceed­ings. 

Mr. Roberson’s case is the sub­ject of NBC ’s “Dateline” pod­cast and a forth­com­ing non-fic­­tion book by John Grisham enti­tled Shaken: The Rush to Execute an Innocent Man

———————————————

--------------------------------------

Two defen­dants in Pennsylvania fac­ing cap­i­tal charges in alleged SBS cas­es filed a peti­tion before the Pennsylvania Supreme Court alleg­ing that Washington County District Attorney Jason Walsh has demon­strat­ed a pat­tern of improp­er­ly threat­en­ing or seek­ing death sen­tences in vio­la­tion of the United States Constitution and the Pennsylvania Constitution. 

The peti­tion not only impli­cates the debunked sci­ence of SBS but also rais­es seri­ous alle­ga­tions of prosecutorial misconduct.

In the case of one defen­dant, Joshua George, the peti­tion alleges DA Walsh’s First Assistant failed to dis­close excul­pa­to­ry tes­ti­mo­ny to the defense until after the pre­lim­i­nary hear­ing. 

Mr. George was ulti­mate­ly acquit­ted of all charges after only 90 min­utes of jury delib­er­a­tions.

 In the oth­er case, that of Jordan Clarke, the peti­tion alleges DA Walsh inter­vened so that Washington County would con­duct the autop­sy despite the death occur­ring in Allegheny County.

 Although Washington County pathol­o­gist Jennifer Hammers found the cause of death to be  “blunt-force trau­ma of the head and tor­so,” Washington County Coroner Timothy Warco filed an invalid death cer­tifi­cate stat­ing the death was due to  “Shaken Baby Syndrome/ Abusive Trauma” and deemed it a homi­cide after Allegheny County had already filed a death cer­tifi­cate. 

The Department of Health did not accept Coroner Warco’s improp­er fil­ing, instead accept­ing the death cer­tifi­cate filed by Allegheny County, which list­ed cause of death as  “intracra­nial hem­or­rhage” and  “man­ner of death as undetermined.” 

The affi­davit pro­vid­ed by Washington County Coroner Warco on July 25, 2025, states that DA Walsh coerced him to file a fraud­u­lent death cer­tifi­cate in the case of Mr. Clarke’s child to ensure it was deemed a homi­cide. 

Coroner Warco alleges that DA Walsh told him, “[you] know that I need this to be a homi­cide, I need it to win an elec­tion,” as his cam­paign plat­form focused on harsh pun­ish­ment for those who kill children."

The entire report can be read at: 

https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/research/analysis/reports/year-end-reports/the-death-penalty-in-2025/innocence

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

———————————————————————————————

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;

—————————————————————————————————

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;

-------------------------------------------------------------------