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Despite a bipartisan chorus of calls to stop Texas death row inmate Robert Roberson from becoming the first person in the country executed for allegedly shaking a baby to death, the state’s parole board denied his closely watched clemency application Wednesday, leaving his execution on track for Thursday.
The Texas Board of Pardons and Parole’s six members voted unanimously to deny the request. The decision came as lawmakers raised concerns that the courts were not properly implementing a groundbreaking 2013 “junk science” law that was intended to provide justice to people convicted based on scientific evidence that has since changed or been debunked.
Hours after the board's decision, Roberson's lawyers filed a request for a stay of execution and petition for relief with the U.S. Supreme Court.
“It is not shocking that the criminal justice system failed Mr. Roberson so badly. What’s shocking is that, so far, the system has been unable to correct itself," Gretchen Sween, Roberson's attorney, said in a statement after the board's vote, adding that Roberson's team would ask Gov. Greg Abbott to issue a 30-day reprieve. “We pray that Governor Abbott does everything in his power to prevent the tragic, irreversible mistake of executing an innocent man.”
While Abbott can issue a one-time reprieve, he cannot defy the board’s recommendation against clemency. Abbott's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The parole board’s decision came as the thunderous campaign to spare Roberson’s life continued. Brian Wharton, the lead detective in Roberson’s case who sided with the prosecution at trial, has called for his exoneration, as has bestselling author John Grisham. A large majority of the Texas House has asked the courts to take a second look at his case. Doug Deason, a GOP megadonor and Abbott ally, also publicly said he believes in Roberson’s innocence, according to the Houston Chronicle.
“I felt like God was pushing me and telling me that I needed to get involved in this case,” Deason told the Chronicle. “Let’s not put a man to death when there are some issues and open questions.”
Roberson, who was convicted of capital murder in 2003 for the death of his ailing 2-year-old daughter, Nikki Curtis, has maintained his innocence over 20 years on death row.
“Governor Abbott, I did not do this,” Roberson said in an interview with NBC News’ Lester Holt that aired Oct. 3. “And I’m just hoping and praying that you do the right thing.”
He has argued that his conviction was based on an unfounded shaken baby syndrome diagnosis given to his daughter, which presumed abuse and did not consider her severe illness before her death. Prosecutors have maintained that Nikki suffered multiple traumas and that there was clear evidence of abuse — conclusions that Roberson’s attorneys dispute.
The four Democrats and five Republicans on the Texas House Committee on Criminal Jurisprudence urged the state’s highest criminal court on Tuesday to stay Roberson’s execution through the 2025 legislative session, saying that the junk science law “has been applied in a manner that raises serious constitutional and equitable concerns.”
“It is beyond dispute that medical evidence presented at Mr. Roberson’s trial in 2003 is inconsistent with modern scientific principles,” the lawmakers wrote to the court, requesting a stay so that the Legislature could consider amendments to the law. “We believe it would be a stain on the conscience of the State of Texas for an execution to proceed while efforts are underway to remedy deficiencies in how the law was applied to this case.”
The courts have rejected all of his appeals so far, with the state’s highest criminal court, on procedural grounds, declining on Wednesday to stop his execution. It previously denied his arguments, without considering their merits.
The refusal by the state’s highest criminal court to consider Roberson’s argument that his conviction relied on a faulty shaken baby syndrome diagnosis, lawmakers said, reflected a breakdown of due process and a failure to implement the junk science law as the Legislature intended.
“This was a pretty clear case where Robert Roberson did not have due process,” state Rep. Lacey Hull, R-Houston, said on CNN on Tuesday. “Texans deserve to know that our justice system is fair and just, and we cannot say that right now.”
The Texas House Criminal Jurisprudence Committee held a hearing spotlighting Roberson’s case and the junk science law on Wednesday as the clemency recommendation loomed. Critics have argued that in the decade since the bill became law, it has rarely provided justice as intended to wrongfully convicted individuals.
“We have one of the best junk science statutes in the nation here in Texas, and unfortunately it doesn’t seem like that was used here,” Hull said on CNN. “Under the junk science statute, Robert Roberson deserves a new trial.”
The parole board has recommended clemency in just one capital case out of the 85 applications it has considered over the past decade.
Dozens of scientists, medical professionals, parental rights groups, organizations that advocate for people with autism and faith leaders submitted letters in support of clemency along with Roberson’s application.
Letters from his friends and loved ones depicted a gentle man of faith who remembered people’s favorite colors and sent handmade birthday cards to everyone he met.
“This man would never harm another person, especially not his small little baby girl!” Manuela Doris Roberson, whom Roberson married in 2022, wrote in one letter. “Robert’s life is worth more to me, his children, his friends and loved ones than all the treasures of this world.”
Correction, : A previous version of this story misidentified Lester Holt’s network. He works for NBC.