The U.S. Supreme Court on Oct. 17 denied a stay of execution application Robert Leslie Roberson, who was sentenced to death in Texas for the murder of his infant daughter in the nation’s first case of a shaken baby syndrome death resulting in capital punishment.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor released a statement regarding the case in the high court’s denial of certiorari, after first explaining the background of the case.
She explained that in 2003, a Texas jury convicted Roberson of murdering his chronically ill infant daughter Nikki Roberson and sentenced him to death. Sotomayor wrote that at trial, the state presented expert testimony to show shaken baby syndrome caused Nikki Roberson’s death.
“At the time, infants exhibiting a triad of symptoms — subdural bleeding, brain swelling, and retinal hemorrhages — were presumed to be victims of child abuse, absent evidence of a major traumatic event such as a car crash,” Sotomayor wrote. “This view went so unquestioned that Roberson’s own defense counsel told the jury in his opening statement that this was ‘unfortunately a shaken baby case,’ that the evidence would ‘show that Nikki did suffer injuries that are totally consistent with those applied by rotational forces more commonly known as shaken baby syndrome,’ and that he would not ‘tell you that there is just no responsibility here at all.’”
Sotomayor asserted a Texas criminal appeals court confirmed “the scientific basis for shaken baby syndrome has since been called into significant question.” She noted the criminal appeals court in Texas granted a new trial to a similarly situated defendant who wasn’t sentenced to death and whose conviction rested on the same testimony from the same expert witness in Roberson’s case.
“Roberson now seeks a stay of execution from this Court, but he presents no cognizable federal claim,” Sotomayor wrote. “Meanwhile, mounting evidence suggests that Nikki died from a combination of pneumonia and improperly prescribed medication, that Nikki’s severe bruising could well have occurred, at least in part, as a result of her extensive medical procedures at the hospital, and that Roberson (who repeatedly sought emergency medical care for his daughter in the days and hours leading up to her death) committed no crime at all.”
Sotomayor noted that because the Supreme Court can’t intervene without a colorable federal claim, and because Roberson wasn’t recommended for clemency by the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles, Roberson’s only remedy now is a reprieve from the president delaying his execution for 30 days.