[ad_1]
Stunning new proof suggests {that a} Texas man set to be executed in a matter of days could also be harmless.
Robert Roberson, 57, was convicted in 2003 of murdering his two-year-old daughter, Nikki, by shaking her so forcefully that he prompted irreversible mind injury and dying from shaken child syndrome, also referred to as abusive head trauma.
He’s now set to be executed on October 17.
However his attorneys have submitted new proof exhibiting that the docs could have misdiagnosed the younger lady’s reason behind dying, as they query whether or not shaken child syndrome even exists.
A bipartisan majority of 86 Texas lawmakers and the state Board of Pardons and Paroles have now really useful clemency – although the ultimate determination lies with Texas Gov. Greg Abbott.
Robert Roberson, 57, is ready to be executed on October 17 for murdering his two-year-old daughter in 2002
Prosecutors argued he shook his daughter, Nikki, so forcefully that he prompted irreversible mind injury and dying from shaken child syndrome, also referred to as abusive head trauma
Prosecutors have argued that Nikki’s 2002 dying was in line with shaken child syndrome – pointing to the diagnostic ‘triad’ of intracranial hemorrhaging, mind swelling and bleeding behind retinas.
They’ve rejected Roberson’s assertion that his younger daughter merely fell off the bed the evening earlier than, and he discovered her unconscious, limp and blue.
As an alternative, medical workers at a Palestine hospital believed Nikki’s injuries- together with bruises on her face, a bump on the again of her head and bleeding outdoors of her mind – had been all brought on by abuse and alerted police to the scene, in response to the Dallas Morning Information.
However Nikki was chronically in poor health and suffered a excessive fever within the days earlier than her dying, attorneys for the Innocence Mission argue.
She had the primary of many infections that proved immune to antibiotics simply days after her beginning – together with a persistent ear an infection that continued even after she had tubes surgically implanted.
The younger lady additionally had a historical past of unexplained ‘respiration apnea’ that prompted her to all of a sudden cease respiration, collapse and switch blue.
Then, inside only one week of her dying, Nikki had been vomiting, coughing and having diarrhea, Roberson’s attorneys stated.
When these signs continued for 5 days straight, Roberson and his mom took Nikki to a neighborhood emergency room, the place a physician prescribed Phenergan – a drug that now carries a Meals and Drug Administration warning in opposition to being prescribed to youngsters of Nikki’s age and in her situation.
Nonetheless, her situation continued to worsen along with her temperature rising about 104 levels Fahrenheit, for which one other physician prescribed extra Phenergan in a cough syrup with codeine – an opioid that’s now restricted for kids below the age of 18 on account of its dangers of inflicting respiration issue and dying.
Nikki’s toxicology report even confirmed deadly ranges of Phenergan in her system on the time of her dying, protection attorneys say.
Roberson has maintained his innocence in his daughter’s dying for the greater than 20 years he has languished on dying row
Roberson has maintained his innocence in his daughter’s dying for the greater than 20 years he has languished on dying row, and on August 1, 2024 his attorneys requested that the district court docket in Anderson County reopen his case.
The submitting states that new medical and scientific proof reveals Nikki died of extreme viral and bacterial pneumonia that progressed to sepsis after which septic shock.
It says Dr. Francis Inexperienced, an skilled in lung pathology with greater than 46 years of expertise, reviewed Nikki’s medical historical past and her lung tissue below a microscope.
He discovered that her lungs had been contaminated with two totally different and virulent forms of pneumonia – which clogged her lungs, ravenous her mind of oxygen and in the end inflicting dying, Inexperienced wrote in a report.
The pneumonia began many days or even weeks earlier than her remaining hospitalization, he added.
Dr. Keenan Bora additionally concluded that Nikki’s autopsy toxicology report reveals she had dangerously excessive ranges of promethazine in her system, prescribed by two totally different docs on two consecutive days, and Dr. Julie Mack concluded that the preliminary CAT scans of Nikki’s head present solely a minor influence web site – in line with Roberson’s story that she fell off a mattress and presumably banged her head.
His attorneys had been capable of get a keep of execution in 2016 after they questioned whether or not shaken child syndrome even exists
Roberson’s attorneys have even questioned whether or not shaken child syndrome is an precise medical prognosis.
It was first posited by neurosurgeon Norman Guthkelch in 1971, and has since grow to be an accepted medical reality.
However researchers have challenged the speculation that shaking an toddler could cause such mind injury because the Nineteen Eighties, with some research concluding that it can not biomechanically trigger the accidents Guthkelch described, in response to USA As we speak.
A 2016 systematic evaluation by the Swedish Company for Well being Expertise Evaluation and Evaluation of Social Companies, for instance, concluded there may be ‘restricted scientific proof that the triad, and subsequently its elements, may be related to traumatic shaking’ and there may be ‘inadequate scientific proof on which to evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of the triad in figuring out traumatic shaking.’
One other research revealed in Forensic Science Worldwide additionally discovered {that a} important variety of sufferers had been misdiagnosed with abusive head trauma, citing different circumstances that may trigger medical and imaging ‘findings generally related to AHT.’
Even Dr. Guthkelch himself has since expressed doubts about shaken child syndrome.
In 2011, he instructed a Nationwide Public Radio reporter he ‘fearful that it’s too typically utilized by health workers and docs with out contemplating different attainable causes for a kid’s dying or harm.’
The next 12 months, he additionally referred to as his speculation into query within the Houston Journal of Well being Regulation and Coverage, saying he was involved concerning the medical group’s ‘stage of emotion and divisiveness on shaken child syndrome/abusive head trauma’ which he stated ‘interfered with our dedication to pursue the reality.’
Shortly earlier than he died, Guthkelch additionally instructed the Washington Put up he was struck by the excessive proportion of diagnoses of shaken child syndrome that could possibly be attributed to pure causes and never abuse.
‘I used to be completely horrified once I got here again 20 years later to listen to all this garbage about incarcerating moms,’ he stated in 2015.
Greater than 80 state lawmakers have since written to the Board of Pardons and Paroles in help of his clemency petition citing ‘voluminous new evidene’
The authorized argument beforehand labored in 2016, when Roberson was granted a keep of execution after his attorneys claimed his conviction was primarily based on ‘junk science’ and ‘false, deceptive and scientifically invalid’ testimony.
Nonetheless, in 2023, Texas’ highest felony court docket determined that doubt over the reason for his daughter’s dying was not sufficient to overturn his dying sentence – and scheduled his execution for October 17, the Texas Tribune studies.
The Texas Courtroom of Felony Appeals additionally dismissed each a movement to halt the execution and a remaining utility for reduction filed by Roberson’s attorneys earlier this month with out reviewing the deserves of the claims.
That compelled the attorneys to file a petition for clemency on September 17.
‘Nikki’s dying… was not a criminal offense – until it’s a crime for a mum or dad to be unable to clarify complicated medical issues that even educated medical professionals failed to know on the time,’ they wrote, in response to KLTV.
‘No knowledgeable physician at this time would presume abuse primarily based on a triad of inner head circumstances, as occurred in Robert’s case,’ the petition continued.
‘However within the period when Robert was accused and convicted, standard medical pondering gave docs permission to skip consideration of every other components and presume shaking and inflicted head trauma – an strategy that has since been utterly rejected as unsound.’
The ultimate determination on whether or not to execute Roberson lies with Texas Gov. Greg Abbott
Greater than 80 state lawmakers have since written to the Board of Pardons and Paroles in help of the clemency petition, citing the ‘voluminous new proof’ and elevating ‘grave concern’ that Texas is making ready to execute Roberson ‘for a criminal offense that didn’t happen.’
‘It ought to shock all Texans that we’re barreling in the direction of an execution within the face of this new proof,’ they wrote.
‘Different states look to Texas as a pacesetter for each implementing the rule of regulation and addressing wrongful convictions.
‘We now look to you to forestall our state from tarnishing that repute by permitting this execution to proceed.’
Nonetheless, prosecutors have maintained that proof supporting Roberson’s conviction is ‘clear and convincing’ and argue that the science round shaken child syndrome has not modified as a lot because the protection claims.
The board can take as much as two days earlier than the execution to make its determination, however the remaining determination will in the end lay with the governor.
