Posted on 10/10/2024 5:03:59 PM PDT by heartwood
Robert Roberson is set to be the first person to be executed in the U.S. based on the largely discredited "shaken baby syndrome" hypothesis unless Texas officials intervene.
On Monday, Roberson's attorneys filed an emergency motion asking the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals to halt Roberson's Oct. 17 execution...
According to Roberson's attorneys, he woke up to find his 2-year-old daughter Nikki lying on the floor at the foot of the bed one night in 2002. They say Roberson comforted her, put her back to bed and went back to sleep himself. He found Nikki unconscious with blue lips when he woke up the next morning. He took her to an emergency room, where she was ultimately pronounced dead....
Roberson was found guilty based on the testimony from a pediatrician who cited swelling and hemorrhages in Nikki's brain at the time as a "shaken baby syndrome" diagnosis even though there is limited evidence to support this as an accurate diagnosis. The hypothesis has come under serious scrutiny in biomechanical studies, as well as lengthening medical and legal literature. The medical examiner also suspected that Nikki sustained multiple head injuries, and considered the death a homicide in the official autopsy...
Lead detective Brian Wharton, who directed Roberson to be arrested based on the "shaken baby" theory and testified against him in the trial, has also since called for Roberson's freedom.
"I will forever be haunted by the role I played in helping the State put this innocent man on death row," he said in a letter in support.
(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...
Scientists no longer believe that the "shaken baby triad" - brain swelling, brain bleeding, bleeding in the eyes - results solely from a baby being shaken and not from illness. https://news.bloomberglaw.com/us-law-week/law-needs-to-keep-up-with-science-in-shaken-baby-syndrome-cases
A new autopsy indicates that the baby had pneumonia and sepsis.
The lead detective now believes Roberson is innocent. Roberson's mannerisms and emotional response to his daughter's death seemed unusual and suspicious. Detective Wharton now believes that was because Roberson is autistic.
Texas has convicted and executed a father before, on the base of dubious science, Cameron Todd Willingham for the supposed arson murder of his children.
Texas sentenced Michael Morton for life for the murder of his wife. He served 25 years before it was proved she was raped and murdered by a stranger.
I ask you please to call Governor Abbott and ask for a commutation or a stay. (361) 264-9653.
Surely, there must have been other more relevant evidence in this case... I can’t imagine a jury sentencing a person to death solely on the ‘shaken baby syndrome’ hypothesis.
Was there other evidence of previous abuse? People who witnessed abuse etc.?
Capital Punishment is an abomination. Too many mistakes are made, and when they’re made, they can’t be undone.
No, no evidence of previous abuse. No neck injury, no bruising on the baby’s arms or shoulders. Just a poor, loner, odd duck of a father.
Even if you believe that Roberson did shake his daughter to death, the state did not prove that the death was premeditated, in any way intentional, or committed during another crime, in short, not the kind of case leading to the death penalty, save that the victim was a child.
Hear, hear!
I agree. I believe there are people who deserve to die, and I believe we are too fallible, sometimes too corrupt and ambitious, to have any business sentencing people to death.
Please call Governor Abbott.
Since it appears nobody saw the baby being shaken he deserves a new trial.
I have little doubt being shaken can kill, that’s why dogs shake toys they play with. In the wild they shake their prey once they catch them.
But with no other evidence than a doctor said so he deserves another trial.
God does not think so.
Who discredited it? If it comes from ABC, it's probably lies.
This story has been on the local news for about the last two weeks. It is really sad on all counts.
Jesus did. He stopped people from stoning the woman.
Pope Francis, is that you?
No doubt shaking could kill, but it is my belief that parents shake a baby when they are exhausted beyond their limits, frustrated, and they do NOT want to injure the child - they don’t strike the child - they just want the child to stop crying.
They have tried everything else, and they need to put the baby down and walk away for half an hour, but they are so attached and so at their wits’ end, that they don’t walk away.
I’ll make a call on this. It does seem a bit of a flimsy case to execute someone.
It's an abomination all right, but not for the reasons you mentioned. It's an abomination because it allows the guilty to live on for decades after conviction.
Capitol punishment needs to occur quickly after sentencing.
The problems you mention are not caused by capitol punishment, they are caused by our idiot court system getting verdicts wrong.
They convict people on flimsy or badly interpreted evidence. Eye witness testimony is particularly bad "evidence." Fiber evidence is crap.
The real problem is a defective court system, both with wrongful convictions and with eternal delays in carrying out sentences.
wow, remember the ‘killer nanny’ louise woodward?
https://nypost.com/2022/02/09/louise-woodward-seen-25-years-after-baby-shaking-death/
Look into it on your own if you don’t trust ABC.
I did.
Pay attention to the lead detective who now thinks Roberson is innocent.
Look at the science.
Don’t just sneer at the MSM. Use them as a starting point.
Give us a phone number and I’ll call
That’s right.
Shaken Baby Syndrome is not discredited at all. The biomechanical mechanisms, the rotational forces of a large head supported by a very weak neck create catastrophic tearing of bridging veins in the head and retinal bleeding. The unseen but traumatic markers are unmistakable signs of SBS. They cannot just happen on their own. There is usually a lie....baby fell off the bed, I don’t know what happened etc.
These taumatic issues manifest themselves very quickly....usually the baby will lose consciousness....the way a boxer loses consciousness when their head snaps back after getting hit.
Men are above 70% as the perps. Then babysitters. Mothers almost never shake their babies....unless they are under the influence.
I am not a doctor, but I am an expert on SBS.
My son was almost killed by a caregiver on 5/14/99. He is permanently disabled today.
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