[UPDATE: The Texas Supreme Court has stayed Roberson's execution- for now] 

I have written several articles about upcoming Texas executions. I always try to take a neutral stance, although it can be difficult, given the severity of these crimes.

With the execution of Travis Mullis earlier this year, I could find no sympathy for him. His crime was too cruel, and his guilt was too clear.

Getty Images/ Tx Dept Criminal Justice
Getty Images/ Tx Dept Criminal Justice
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The next man scheduled to be executed in Texas is Robert Roberson III. I'm not sure it's justice for him to be executed, and I don't think a jury in 2024 would have given him the death penalty.

I feel this way because he was convicted based on "Shaken Baby Syndrome" a theory that many medical professionals consider to be debunked. It would make him the first person executed in a "shaken baby" case, according to NBC News.

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Polygraphs and bite mark analysis, the 80s and 90s era "slam dunks" in guilt or innocence, are now considered junk science. Shaken Baby Syndrome (SBS) is controversial in the medical community, so time will tell if it will fall into the same category.

What Happened To Baby Nikki?

Roberson took his two-year-old daughter Nikki to the emergency room after he found her unresponsive. She was found to have some symptoms of SBS, that is, retinal hemorrhaging, bleeding, and brain swelling.

The ER doctor diagnosed SBS, and Roberson was arrested before an autopsy took place. However, Nikki's symptoms could have been caused by the illness she suffered the week before she died, the medicine she was prescribed, and an accidental fall from her bed, according to the Texas Innocence Project:

Nikki died of natural and accidental causes: a severe undiagnosed pneumonia that caused her to cease breathing, collapse, and turn blue before she was discovered unconscious.

It is irrefutable that Nikki’s medical records show that she was severely ill during the last week of her life. Instead of identifying her pneumonia, she was prescribed dangerous medications, no longer given to children her age. 

Furthermore, the hospital staff took Roberson's undiagnosed autism as a lack of care for his daughter.

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The jury heard misleading testimony from a nurse who claimed Roberson molested his daughter- a claim she had no evidence for and was not backed up by any other medical professional.

I think many reasonable people would conclude that Roberson's guilt is not certain and that his trial was unfair. Was he negligent? Quite possibly, but that is not a capital crime.

Many people have been exonerated in these SBS cases; however, unless something drastic happens soon, Texas will execute a quite possibly innocent man later this month.

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