Texas appeals court again pauses execution of Robert Roberson in shaken
baby case
[October 10, 2025]
By JUAN A. LOZANO
HOUSTON (AP) — Texas’ top criminal court on Thursday again paused the
execution of Robert Roberson, just days before he was set to become the
first person in the U.S. put to death for a murder conviction tied to a
diagnosis of shaken baby syndrome.
This was the third execution date that Roberson’s lawyers have been able
to stay since 2016, including one scheduled nearly a year ago due to an
unprecedented intervention from a bipartisan group of Texas lawmakers
who believe he is innocent.
The latest execution stay was granted by the Texas Court of Criminal
Appeals. Roberson had been scheduled to receive a lethal injection on
Oct. 16 for the death of his 2-year-old daughter Nikki Curtis.
Since his first execution date more than nine years ago, Roberson’s
lawyers have filed multiple petitions with state and federal appeals
courts, as well as with the U.S. Supreme Court, to stop his execution.
They have also asked the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles and Gov.
Greg Abbott to intervene, as part of their efforts to secure Roberson a
new trial.
Will ‘junk science’ law secure Roberson a new trial?
“He is actually innocent,” Gretchen Sween, one of Roberson's attorneys,
told reporters after the court ruling. “I would like to prove that and
get him home one day.”
Roberson’s attorneys have argued his then-undiagnosed autism helped
convict him as authorities and medical personnel felt he didn’t act like
a concerned parent because his flat affect was seen as a sign of guilt.
He was diagnosed with autism in 2018.
The court granted the stay based on Texas’ 2013 junk science law, which
allows a person convicted of a crime to seek relief if the evidence used
against them is no longer credible. It cited its October 2024 ruling
that overturned the conviction of another man, Andrew Roark, in another
shaken baby case in Dallas. Roberson's lawyers argue that the two cases
are indistinguishable.
The appeals court sent Roberson's case back to his trial court in East
Texas for review to determine if he should get a new trial.
Matthew Bowman, Nikki’s half-brother, said he and his family are
disappointed by Thursday’s ruling, and that they think Roberson should
be executed. Bowman told The Associated Press he believes the evidence
shows Roberson caused Nikki’s injuries by repeatedly hitting her.
“In my opinion, he’s the only one that could have done it that night. So
we’re hoping that the execution comes back,” he said.
The Texas Attorney General's Office, which is seeking Roberson's
execution, has not responded to an email requesting comment.
Appeals court focuses on similar shaken baby syndrome case
Roberson's lawyers had requested the stay based new legal and scientific
developments and expert analyses that indicate Nikki’s death was caused
by illness and accident, not abuse. They included a joint statement from
10 independent pathologists who said the medical examiner’s autopsy
report, which concluded Nikki died from blunt force head injuries, was
“not reliable.”
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Robert Roberson waits to be interviewed in a locked visitation cell
at the Allan B. Polunsky Unit prison in Livingston, Texas,
Wednesday, Oct. 1, 2025. Roberson, who has maintained his innocence
on death row for more than 20 years, is scheduled to be executed on
Oct. 16, for the 2002 killing of his 2-year-old daughter, Nikki
Curtis. (AP Photo/Annie Mulligan)
Roberson's attorneys also alleged judicial misconduct, saying the judge
who oversaw his trial hadn't disclosed he previously authorized the
circumvention of Roberson’s parental rights and allowed Nikki’s
grandparents to remove her from life support.
The appeals court denied both those claims and instead said it was
granting the stay to review issues raised by Roark’s case on its “own
initiative.”
In granting Roark a new trial, the appeals court found that the science
had changed to undermine the prosecution’s theory of a case involving
shaken baby syndrome, and that Roark likely would not have been
convicted under the “evolved scientific evidence." The Dallas County
District Attorney’s Office subsequently dropped the charges against
Roark.
“I know that Roark changed the legal landscape in Texas and should mean
relief for Robert,” Sween said.
Roberson has long proclaimed his innocence, telling The Associated Press
in an interview last week from death row in Livingston, Texas, that he
never abused his daughter.
“I never shook her or hit her,” he said.
The diagnosis of shaken baby syndrome refers to a serious brain injury
caused when a child’s head is hurt through shaking or some other violent
impact, like being slammed against a wall or thrown on the floor.
Some authorities believe Nikki was a victim of child abuse
Prosecutors at Roberson’s 2003 trial, as well as the office of Texas
Attorney General Ken Paxton, have argued that Roberson hit Nikki and
violently shook her, causing severe head trauma. They said she was a
victim of child abuse and died from injuries related to shaken baby
syndrome.
In a Sept. 26 op-ed in The Dallas Morning News, three pediatricians,
including two with the Yale School of Medicine, said they reviewed the
case and “are convinced that Nikki was a victim of child abuse.”
Shaken baby syndrome has come under scrutiny in recent years; some
lawyers and medical experts say the diagnosis has wrongly sent people to
prison. Prosecutors and medical societies say it remains valid.
Roberson’s supporters include liberal and ultraconservative lawmakers,
Texas GOP megadonor and conservative activist Doug Deason, bestselling
author John Grisham, and Brian Wharton, the former police detective who
helped put together the case against him.
GOP state Rep. Brian Harrison, one of the more conservative lawmakers in
the Texas Legislature, praised the stay.
“For over two decades, Mr. Robert Roberson has never, not once, been
afforded due process and he has never had a fair trial,” Harrison told
reporters on Thursday.
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