Court stays execution of autistic man in ‘shaken baby’ case
HOUSTON—The Texas Supreme Court issued a last-minute stay of execution on Thursday to an autistic man whose murder conviction was based on what his lawyers say was a misdiagnosis of “shaken baby syndrome.”
Robert Roberson, 57, had been scheduled to die by lethal injection at the state penitentiary in Huntsville on Thursday for the February 2002 death of his 2-year-old daughter, Nikki.
But the Texas Supreme Court temporarily stayed the execution following an appeal from Texas lawmakers who issued a subpoena to Roberson so he can testify before a House committee that is examining his conviction.
“If the sentence is carried out, the witness obviously cannot appear,” wrote Justice Evan Young.
A bipartisan group of 86 Texas lawmakers has urged clemency for Roberson, citing “voluminous new scientific evidence” that casts doubt on his guilt, and the committee has subpoenaed him to testify on Monday.
Roberson is one of two death row inmates who were to be executed in the United States on Thursday.
Derrick Dearman, 36, was put to death by lethal injection in Alabama for the 2016 axe murders of five people who were related to his girlfriend, Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall said.
“The gruesome facts of this case merited the ultimate punishment,” Marshall said.
Dearman confessed to the killings and had abandoned appeals against his death sentence.
