The Supreme Court of the US state of Texas halted the Thursday (Oct 17) execution of a man who would have become the first person in the country put to death for a murder conviction tied to a diagnosis of shaken baby syndrome.[โฆ]CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL ARTICLEโถ
A report by the news agency Associated Press on Friday said that supporters of Robert Roberson turned to the Texas High Court which normally does not get involved in criminal cases, after both the US Supreme Court and the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, earlier on Thursday rejected appeals to halt his lethal injection.
Roberson, 57, was convicted of killing his two-year-old daughter in 2002. He has long proclaimed his innocence, backed by some notable Republican lawmakers, Texas GOP megadonor and conservative activist Doug Deason and the lead detective on the case.
Roberson’s lawyers and some medical experts say his daughter died not from abuse but from complications related to pneumonia.
The Associated Press report said that hours after the original execution time of 6 pm local time passed in Texas, Roberson had remained in a prison holding cell a few feet from the death chamber at the Walls Unit in Huntsville.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott had authority to delay Robersonโs punishment for 30 days.
The Texas appeals court ruling was one of a flurry of legal decisions in the hours before Robersonโs scheduled lethal injection, the report said.
At the same time a state judge in Austin was issuing a temporary restraining order, the US Supreme Court refused to halt the execution, although Justice Sonia Sotomayor โ in a 10-page statement about the case โ urged Abbott to grant a 30-day delay.
The stateโs legal fight to get the execution carried out had faced a midnight CDT deadline when the death warrant authorising Robersonโs execution would expire.
It was likely, however, the case would need to be resolved well before that since officials must conduct procedures such as attaching intravenous needles and allowing time for an injection to take effect and a physician to pronounce him dead.
On Thursday, the judge in Austin had paused the execution after Texas lawmakers issued a subpoena for Roberson to testify in front of them next week in a last-ditch effort to pause the execution.
โThis is an extraordinary remedy the Legislature is seeking. But it is not undue. The Legislature is allowed this constitutional authority,โ Republican leader and Texas House Criminal Jurisprudence Committee member Jeff Leach said during the hearing.
Robersonโs case has renewed debate over shaken baby syndrome, known in the medical community as abusive head trauma.
His lawyers as well as the Texas lawmakers, medical experts and others said that his conviction was based on faulty and now outdated scientific evidence.
The diagnosis refers to a serious brain injury caused when a childโs head is hurt through shaking or some other violent impact, like being slammed against a wall or thrown on the floor.
Robersonโs supporters donโt deny head and other injuries from child abuse are real. But they say doctors misdiagnosed his childโs injuries as being related to shaken baby syndrome and that new evidence showed that the girl died from complications related to pneumoniaโฆCLICK HERE TO READ MORE ARTICLES>>>
