HOUSTON (AP) — A Texas man this week could become the first person executed in the U.S. from a murder conviction tied to the diagnosis of shaken baby syndrome.
Robert Roberson, 57, is scheduled to receive a lethal injection on Thursday for the 2002 killing of his 2-year-old daughter, Nikki Curtis. Roberson has long proclaimed his innocence. His lawyers as well as a bipartisan group of Texas lawmakers, medical experts and others have argued his conviction was based on faulty scientific evidence and say new evidence has shown Curtis died from complications related to severe pneumonia.
But prosecutors maintain Roberson’s new evidence does not disprove their case that Curtis died from injuries inflicted by her father.
Roberson’s scheduled execution renewed debate over shaken baby syndrome. On one side of the debate are lawyers and some in the medical and scientific communities who argue the shaken baby diagnosis is flawed and has led to wrongful convictions. On the other side are prosecutors and medical societies from the U.S. and around the world who say the diagnosis is valid, has been scientifically proven and is the leading cause of fatal head injuries in children younger than 2 years of age.
Here’s what to know about the highly scrutinized diagnosis ahead of Robertson’s scheduled execution:
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