Texas court blocks execution of death row inmate Robert Roberson

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Texas’ highest criminal court on Thursday blocked Robert Roberson’s execution a week before it was set to take place, sending his capital murder conviction back to trial court.

Roberson was convicted of capital murder in 2003 for the death of his two-year-old daughter Nikki, who was diagnosed with shaken baby syndrome. He has maintained his innocence over more than 20 years on death row, with his attorneys arguing that the science behind Nikki’s shaken baby diagnosis no longer held up. He was scheduled to be executed on Oct. 16.

After previously denying his appeals largely on procedural grounds, the Court of Criminal Appeals on Thursday granted his request for a stay of execution under Texas’ groundbreaking 2013 junk science law, which provides for new trials when the science driving a conviction has since been debunked. In its order, the court cited its decision last year to overturn a shaken baby conviction out of Dallas in recognition that medical and legal understandings of the diagnosis had evolved over the last several decades.

Roberson’s conviction had become a political lightning rod, with a bipartisan group of lawmakers fighting for him to get a new trial and another group of Republicans, including Attorney General Ken Paxton, clamoring for his execution. His execution was delayed last year after a Texas House committee subpoenaed him the day before he was set to put to death, prompting a temporary delay issued by the Texas Supreme Court.

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