Foundation Seeks to Intervene for Father on Death Row

On July 1, a Texas court set October 17 as the date for the execution of Robert Roberson, a father convicted in 2003 of killing his two-year-old daughter, according to the Texas Tribune. 

Last week, the Parental Rights Foundation sent a letter, cosigned by the Family Justice Resource Center, urging Texas Governor Greg Abbott to issue a reprieve and call for a new trial.

According to the prosecution and the court’s findings, Nikki Roberson was a victim of Shaken Baby Syndrome, a now debunked medical diagnosis which claimed erroneously that a certain triad of symptoms could only be caused by severe abuse.

Unfortunately for Roberson, his conviction came before that theory was debunked, and the courts have refused to consider contrary medical evidence since. His fate was sealed on the testimony of a single physician, trained only to spot abuse and not to consider other potential underlying medical conditions.

According to Roberson’s defense and this article at Innocence Project, Nikki had been suffering undiagnosed pneumonia in the week leading to her death. They cite medical records from multiple ER trips and a pediatrician visit when the girl exhibited coughing, wheezing, and a temperature of 104.5 degrees. Instead of being treated for pneumonia, the girl was given codeine and Phenergan, drugs no longer given to children her age especially because they can suppress respiration. 

In short, it was the medical community, not her father, who failed Nikki in 2003.

But Robert has spent more than twenty years on death row, always maintaining his innocence and mourning his child.

Our letter explains,

“Mr. Roberson’s conviction in the death of his daughter, Nikki, came at a time when a medical theory called ‘Shaken Baby Syndrome’ fueled prosecutions all over the nation. In many instances, like in Roberson’s, a single doctor testified to a triad of symptoms as indicative of willful abuse. And many parents were sentenced to life in prison, or given the death penalty, on the basis of this theory and this singular testimony alone.

Since that time, thousands of these cases have been overturned, and not one of those executions has taken place. The ‘Shaken Baby Syndrome’ theory has been utterly debunked as the same triad of symptoms has been documented arising from naturally occurring causes time and time again. Thousands of innocent parents have been set free as further scientific evidence has rendered SBS theory bankrupt.”

What’s more, the fact that only one doctor testified and that Roberson was not allowed to introduce a second medical opinion is not only an injustice, but one which the Texas legislature addressed in Texas Senate Bill 1578 in 2021—a bill which Governor Greg Abbott himself signed into law. 

That new law requires courts that received testimony from a child abuse pediatrician to also permit conflicting testimony from another medical expert so that both views can be weighed in the record.

Had that been Texas law in 2005, the court decision may have been very different. Since it was not passed until 2021, Robert Roberson does not receive any benefit from it.

Our letter argues that he should, that justice demands that he be given a new trial that applies the standard that the 2021 legislature felt was necessary to ensure that justice is done and that innocent parents are protected.

The model bill I took to ALEC in July to rein in child abuse pediatricians contains the protections for innocent parents that Texas SB 1578 introduced in 2021. We borrowed heavily from the Texas law when we drafted that section of our model, which we would like to see passed all over the country.

No parent should be facing execution, as Robert Roberson is, on the testimony of a single physician, especially when other physicians stand ready to provide an alternate diagnosis that validly explains all the same symptoms.

Many other groups have signed similar letters urging Gov. Abbott to pardon Roberson, but it is too early yet to know what effect, if any, our letters will have in this case.

If you believe in prayer, I encourage you to pray for Mr. Roberson, for Governor Abbott, and that justice will be done.

And if you are able, I invite you to invest in the Parental Rights Foundation as we seek to promote our model bill in the coming legislative session to protect other innocent parents from facing false charges springing from baseless medical theories. 

Together we can restore sanity to the courtroom and balance to the medical field’s recognition of abuse versus natural causes. And in so doing, we can protect innocent parents from the nightmare facing Robert Roberson today.