International Courant
Texas is about to execute a person for the homicide of his two-year-old daughter, regardless of doubts about his guilt.
Robert Roberson will obtain a deadly injection Thursday after the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles rejected his plea for clemency.
If the execution goes forward, he would be the first particular person in the USA to face the demise penalty for a homicide conviction associated to the controversial analysis of shaken child syndrome.
Roberson has maintained his innocence within the demise of his daughter, Nikki Curtis, and the lead detective investigating the case has additionally defended him and urged the state to name off the execution.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott might grant a one-time 30-day reprieve on Roberson’s execution, however he can not grant full clemency with out the parole board’s suggestion.
Gretchen Sween, one in every of Roberson’s attorneys, urged the governor to grant a reprieve “so we are able to proceed to pursue Mr. Roberson’s declare of innocence.”
“We pray that Governor Abbott does all the things in his energy to forestall the tragic, irreversible mistake of executing an harmless man,” Sween stated.
In his practically decade as governor, Abbott has halted just one pending execution.
‘System failed’
Calls are mounting to halt Roberson’s execution amid questions on proof that his daughter suffers from shaken child syndrome, a mind harm attributable to shaking or violent impression.
Roberson’s supporters say medical doctors misdiagnosed Curtis’ accidents as associated to shaken child syndrome and that new proof exhibits the lady died not from abuse however from problems associated to extreme pneumonia .
Roberson’s attorneys additionally recommend that his autism, which was undiagnosed on the time of his daughter’s demise, was used in opposition to him as a result of authorities grew to become suspicious of his lack of emotion about what occurred to his daughter.
One distinguished voice defending Roberson is conservative activist Doug Deason, who wrote in a submit on X on Tuesday: “I consider he’s harmless.”
One other advocate is the lead detective on Roberson’s case, Brian Wharton, who has expressed remorse for taking part in a job in his conviction.
“Figuring out all the things I do know now, I firmly consider that Robert is an harmless man,” Wharton stated lately at a information convention organized by Roberson’s supporters. “The system failed Robert.”
The Anderson County District Lawyer’s Workplace, which prosecuted Roberson, has stated in courtroom paperwork that after a 2022 listening to to contemplate the brand new proof within the case, a decide rejected theories that pneumonia and different sicknesses triggered Curtis’ demise.
‘Improve in variety of executions’
Roberson is one in every of a number of males set to be executed within the coming month within the US, the place demise penalty legal guidelines are set by particular person states.
Derrick Ryan Dearman, convicted of killing 5 folks in a 2016 home assault in Alabama, will obtain a deadly injection the identical day as Roberson.
Thomas Eugene Creech, convicted of six murders together with the 1981 beating demise of a fellow inmate, will obtain a deadly injection on November 13, about 9 months after the state failed in its first try to put him to demise kill. discover a viable vein into which the lethal drug may be delivered.
UN human rights spokesman Seif Magango issued an announcement expressing concern in regards to the “rise in executions” within the US, with six folks put to demise in 12 days final month.
Amongst these executed was Emmanuel Littlejohn, who was killed by deadly injection final month regardless of an Oklahoma parole board recommending his life be spared.
One other man, Marcellus Williams, whose homicide conviction was questioned by a prosecutor, was additionally executed by deadly injection in September.
“We urge the USA to affix the rising international consensus on the common abolition of the demise penalty – starting by instantly imposing a moratorium on executions,” Magango stated.
Texas man is executed after plea for clemency fails | Crime information
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