The Texas Attorney General has hit back at state legislators after they managed to delay the execution of a man on death row for killing his two-year-old daughter.
Ken Paxton issued a statement after the execution of Robert Roberson, 57, was delayed following an 11th hour bid by lawmakers to overturn his death sentence.
Roberson was set to die by lethal injection following his conviction for killing his toddler daughter, Nikki Curtis, at his Palestine, Texas home.
He was convicted in 2002, with investigators blaming it on the now-discredited shaken baby syndrome (SBS).
On Wednesday, Paxton released a letter and backed the original conviction and condemned Roberson’s advocates in the process.
The letter included Curtis’s autopsy, statements from witnesses in the trial, and claims from a cellmate that Roberson had sexually abused his daughter.
Ken Paxton released a letter and backed the original conviction and condemned Roberson’s advocates in the process.
Roberson was set to die by lethal injection following his conviction for killing his toddler daughter, Nikki Curtis, at his Palestine , Texas home
A bipartisan group of 86 Texas lawmakers has urged clemency for Roberson, citing ‘voluminous new scientific evidence’ that casts doubt on his guilt.
Insisting on his guilt, Paxton accused the bipartisan committee who played a major role in the stay of execution of using ‘extrajudicial stunts’ to stop it.
The letter directly challenges claims by Roberson’s lawyers and the group of lawmakers that Curtis did not die as a result of SBS.
They believe that the young girl’s cause of death may have been misdiagnosed, claiming she was chronically ill and had a high fever.
Paxton’s letter claims that an emergency room nurse who testified at the trial said that Curtis had ‘a handprint on her face, and that the back of her skull was mushy’.
It says that family members had reported that Roberson was physically abusive, and had whipped Curtis, as well as struck her with a board or a paddle previously.
He also says that Roberson told a former cellmate, Ryan Lodygowski, that he had ‘put his penis in the baby’s mouth’.
According to Lodygowski, Roberson said he hit his daughter on the back of her head with his hand and then dropped her on the head.
Paxton wrote: ‘A coalition of activists and State legislators is interfering with the justice system in an unprecedented way in an attempt to stall or prevent Roberson’s execution.
‘They have attempted to mislead the public by falsely claiming that Roberson was unfairly convicted through ‘junk science’ concerning ‘shaken baby syndrome.’
‘Despite these eleventh-hour, one-sided, extrajudicial stunts that attempt to obscure the facts and rewrite his past, the truth remains.’
Doctors testified at his trial that Nikki’s injuries were consistent with SBS and jurors found him guilty of capital murder
Roberson was a parolee at the time of his daughter’s death with previous convictions for burglary and theft and parole violations
Texas lawmakers meet with Robert Roberson at a prison in Livingston, Texas, on Friday, Sept. 27, 2024
Despite the damning statement made by Paxton, Roberson’s defense team released a rebuttal saying it was a case of SBS that he was convicted on.
His attorney Gretchen Sween said: ‘Again, all you have to do is go look at the trial transcripts themselves – it was a shaken baby case from the beginning of jury selection all the way through to the end.’
Other points made in their 27-page rebuttal say that the autopsy, medical examiner and witness reports were either flawed, falsified or disproved.
Brian Wharton, the lead detective in Roberson’s conviction, has came forward in recent times and now believes he got it all wrong.
Brian Wharton, seen here, has said that the evidence he used to help convict Roberson was wrong
He also released a statement, saying the claims made by Paxton about sexual abuse are baseless and unreliable.
Wharton wrote: ‘As a detective in Palestine, Texas, I was very familiar with this kind of “jailhouse confession” allegation.
‘That such material has been irresponsibly highlighted and is being treated as truthful information saddens me deeply.
‘The source of this information in 2002, Ryan Lodygowski, was frequently in trouble with the law and never worthy of trust.
‘In my view, he was such an obviously unreliable informant I would not have entertained a conversation with him.’
Travis County Judge Jessica Mangrum had blocked his execution so that he could testify before the Texas legislature.
The legislature issued a subpoena for Roberson’s testimony the day before his execution and Mangrum has approved a temporary restraining order. Roberson’s testimony has since been postponed.
Prosecutors – and the jury – at the time determined that Curtis had died not from a fall but from being shaken to death by her father.
Travis County Judge Jessica Mangrum had blocked his execution so that he could testify before the Texas legislature, which he is yet to do. He is seen here with Nikki
Attorneys for Roberson have been fighting to overturn his conviction for years, saying he was wrongfully placed on death row using faulty and outdated information
But in the years since, doctors have stepped away from assigning shaken baby syndrome (SBS) as a cause of death.
The scientist who proposed it himself even admitted that it was being used to ‘put innocent people in prison’, warning in 2012 ‘we have gone badly off the rails.’
Roberson was given custody of Nikki by her maternal grandparents after her mother, who has remained unnamed was denied custody in the hospital after her birth.
In the week prior her death, Nikki had been sick and appeared at a local emergency room where she was prescribed Phenergan and sent home.
After her condition didn’t improve, doctors again prescribed her more Phenergan and codeine, an opioid now restricted from children under the age of 18.
The following night she had gone to sleep beside her father, who woke up to find her unconscious.
Roberson was a parolee at the time of his daughter’s death with previous convictions for burglary and theft and parole violations.
Sween said his autism spectrum disorder, which was not diagnosed until 2018, was also not taken into account and contributed to his arrest and conviction.
During the medical crisis involving his daughter, Roberson ‘shut down, and his external lack of affect was judged as a lack of caring,’ Sween said.
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