October 26, 2024
5 min read
Shaken Baby Syndrome Has Been Discredited. Why Is Robert Roberson Still on Death Row?
Convicted of a crime that never happened, Roberson’s case is a prime example of how the U.S. legal system often fails to recognize advances in scientific knowledge
Protesters from the Innocence Project in the hallway outside a hearing room in Texas. Legislators issued an unusual last-minute subpoena to save death-row inmate Robert Roberson from his scheduled execution.
Bob Daemmrich/Alamy Live News
In a last-minute effort to save the life of a man on death row, a bipartisan group of Texas legislators has just done something extraordinary: they have unanimously subpoenaed Robert Roberson, convicted in 2003 of killing his daughter based on the now-discredited theory of shaken baby syndrome, to testify before them five days after he was scheduled to be executed, effectively forcing the state to keep him alive.
Roberson is one of many people who have been imprisoned for injuries to a child that prosecutors argue resulted from violent shaking. But research has exposed serious flaws in these determinations, and dozens of other defendants who have been wrongly convicted under this theory have been exonerated. Yet Roberson remains on death row, even as politicians, scientists and others—including the lead detective who investigated him and one of the jurors who convicted him—have spoken out on his behalf. If his execution proceeds, they and many others believe that Texas will be killing an innocent man for a “crime” that never happened.
As our scientific understanding of shaken baby syndrome has evolved over the past 20 years, justice requires that courts reexamine old convictions in light of new findings. This is especially true for Roberson, who would be the first person in the U.S. to be executed for a conviction based on shaken baby syndrome. No matter one’s view of the death penalty, the ultimate punishment must be…
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