Texas To Ask For New Execution Date For Death Row Inmate Robert Roberson At Hearing

A proceeding connected Wednesday will find whether Texas tin proceed pinch a caller execution day for condemned inmate Robert Roberson, who would beryllium nan first put to decease successful nan United States successful a lawsuit of alleged shaken babe syndrome.

Roberson, 58, faces a imaginable execution successful nan 2002 decease of his 2-year-old daughter, Nikki. His lawsuit has drawn attraction from a bipartisan group of Texas lawmakers who successfully halted his death successful October pinch only hours to spare aft a flurry of eleventh-hour ineligible maneuvering.

Since then, Roberson had been successful limbo aft filing different entreaty earlier this twelvemonth successful a bid to triumph a caller trial, while prosecutors pushed up for different execution date.

The agency of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton had requested past month that nan Anderson County District Court schedule nan caller day for Roberson, penning successful a mobility that "the criteria for mounting an execution person been met." Paxton has requested an Oct. 16 execution date, 1 twelvemonth aft his execution was halted.

Smith County District Judge Austin Reeve Jackson is group to perceive arguments astir nan lawyer general's request.

Roberson's lawyer, Gretchen Sween, antecedently accused Paxton of rushing to activity an execution without letting nan litigation play out.

"Robert was almost wrongfully executed past year," Sween said successful a connection successful June. "But for nan courageous involution of Texas lawmakers from some parties nan worst imaginable injustice would person been an irrevocable stain connected Texas."

Paxton, a Republican, had acquired nan lawsuit from Anderson County District Attorney Allyson Mitchell, who was handling nan prosecution's lawsuit successful caller years. It's unclear why Paxton's agency was asked to return over, and his agency didn't instantly respond to a petition for remark astir nan latest execution date.

In nan weeks aft Roberson's execution was stopped past fall, Paxton sparred pinch authorities lawmakers starring nan House's Criminal Jurisprudence Committee. Members had utilized nan committee's lawsuit powerfulness to compel Roberson to attest astatine a proceeding — an action that efficaciously halted his execution.

But Paxton's agency prevented Roberson from appearing successful person, arguing nan lawsuit was "procedurally defective and truthful invalid."

Roberson was group to attest successful his lawsuit arsenic it relates to a 2013 "junk science" rule that allows Texas inmates to perchance situation convictions based connected advances successful forensic science.

Roberson has maintained his innocence successful his daughter's death. In January 2002, Roberson and Nikki fell dormant successful their East Texas location and he later awoke, he said, aft he heard a sound and recovered that nan toddler had fallen retired of bed, according to tribunal documents.

Robert Roberson pinch his daughter, Nikki.Courtesy Roberson family

Later that morning, erstwhile Roberson discovered his girl was unconscious and her lips were blue, he rushed her to a section emergency room. he showed small emotion, furthering rule enforcement's suspicions.

Within a day, a constabulary detective arrested Roberson connected a superior execution charge.

The assemblage successful Roberson's proceedings ne'er heard nan grade of really sick Nikki was from nan time she was born, nor that she had been taken to nan infirmary much than 40 times successful her short life. Two days earlier she died, she registered a 104.5 grade fever astatine nan doctor's office. She was sent location pinch nan medication Phenergan that has since been deemed excessively vulnerable for children — a supplier that now carries a "black container warning" from nan Food and Drug Administration.

Brian Wharton, nan detective who arrested Roberson and has since retired, has said publically that he now believes Roberson is innocent.

Wharton told NBC News' Lester Holt successful October that he arrested Roberson without knowledge of Nikki's aesculapian history and that he was unaware that Roberson is autistic, which would person explained his deficiency of emotion. (Roberson was diagnosed pinch autism spectrum upset successful 2018, years aft Nikki's death.)

While doctors and rule enforcement concluded that Nikki was killed arsenic a consequence of a convulsive shaking episode, Roberson's defense squad says a caller knowing of "shaken babe syndrome" shows that different aesculapian conditions tin beryllium factors successful a child's death, arsenic it believes was successful Nikki's death.

Paxton, however, is adamant Roberson is blameworthy of murder.

In a database of reasons posted successful October connected X to group "the grounds straight," he based on nan begetter murdered his girl by "beating her truthful brutally that she yet died."