Texas set to execute dad in disputed 'shaken baby' case

Protesters demonstrated against the death penalty

Medical experts and supporters of Roberson say his conviction was based on an outdated scientific understanding of shaken baby syndrome

(Image credit: Stefani Reynolds / AFP via Getty Images)

By Peter Weber, The Week US

published 17 October 2024

What happened

The Texas Board of Parole and Pardons voted 6-0 Wednesday against clemency for Robert Roberson, convicted of killing his ailing 2-year-old daughter by shaking her to death in 2002. His execution, the first ever tied to shaken baby syndrome, is scheduled for Thursday (today). Also on Wednesday, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals denied a final appeal from Roberson and a bipartisan Texas House committee voted unanimously to subpoena him, seeking to throw him a lifeline.

The "thunderous bipartisan campaign to spare Roberson's life" includes doctors, faith leaders, a large majority of the Texas House, the detective who helped convict Roberson and Texas GOP megadonor and conservative activist Doug Deason, The Texas Tribune said. "I believe he is innocent," Deason said on X Tuesday. Medical experts and supporters of Roberson, 57, say his conviction was "based on faulty and now outdated scientific evidence related to shaken baby syndrome," The Associated Press said. His lawyers say new evidence shows his daughter died from complications of severe pneumonia, not abuse. The execution "would come less than a month after Missouri put to death Marcellus Williams amid lingering questions about his guilt," the AP said.

The House panel's "unprecedented subpoena" set up a "separation of powers issue that I think would result in him not being executed tomorrow night," Benjamin Wolff, the director of the Texas Office of Capital and Forensic Writs, said to the Tribune Wednesday. Gov. Greg Abbott (R) can't override the vote of the parole board, whose members he appointed, but he can grant a 30-day reprieve. Still, the AP said, "in his nearly 10 years as governor, Abbott has halted only one imminent execution, in 2018."

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.