BREAKING: Explosive New Evidence Revealed in NBC “Dateline” Podcast Related to Pending Claim in Robert Roberson Case

Mr. Roberson is Scheduled to be Executed on October 16 Despite Overwhelming Evidence of Innocence

If Mr. Roberson’s execution is not stayed, he will be the first person executed in the United States for a conviction obtained using the now widely debunked “Shaken Baby Syndrome” hypothesis

(Austin, Texas, Tuesday, October 7, 2025) In a stunning development, late yesterday, attorneys for Robert Roberson, an innocent man scheduled to be executed in Texas on October 16, informed the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals (CCA) about explosive new information, available for the first time on Monday, that reflects inherent bias on the part of the judge who presided over Mr. Roberson’s 2003 capital murder trial. The newly discovered evidence substantiates Mr. Roberson’s pending judicial misconduct claim, which he filed in August based on other evidence also discovered only recently, and only through happenstance. In yesterday’s filing, Mr. Roberson’s attorneys argue this evidence of judicial misconduct caused “structural error” and requires a new trial.

The Notice of New Evidence explains that the new evidence was discovered only as a result of a podcast released on Monday, published by NBC “Dateline,” called The Last Appeal. The first episode of this new podcast includes information obtained for an interview with Larry Bowman, the maternal grandfather of Mr. Roberson’s deceased daughter Nikki whose family has been advocating for Mr. Roberson’s execution. The second episode of the podcast was released this morning.

In the interview, Mr. Bowman revealed “that Anderson County Judge Bascom Bentley, who presided over Mr. Roberson’s trial, is the person who gave the Bowmans permission to authorize removing Nikki from life-sustaining care contrary to Texas law. In doing so, Judge Bentley circumvented Mr. Roberson’s rights as Nikki’s sole managing conservator and thus the sole individual with legal authority to make that decision.” (Notice of New Evidence, pp. 1-2)

“It is now indisputable that Robert’s case was infected by egregious judicial misconduct from the outset. That the Anderson County judge who presided over Robert’s trial never disclosed that he is the one who authorized circumventing Robert’s parental rights and violating Texas law so that Nikki’s removal from life support could be hastened—and then her father charged with capital murder—is very disturbing. That action, long shrouded in secrecy, creates more than simply an appearance of bias—although even the “appearance of bias” is all that the law requires to prove constitutional error,” said Gretchen Sween, one of Mr. Roberson’s attorneys. “It’s shocking that we are discovering the truth about this glaring, undisclosed evidence of bias only by chance, from a podcast, days before Robert is scheduled to be executed for a tragedy that has been mislabeled as a crime.”

Mr. Roberson initially filed his judicial misconduct claim in August 2025 after learning of a meeting between Texas State Representative Lacey Hull and a representative of the Children’s Medical Center of Dallas, during which the hospital unexpectedly revealed that its staff had not removed life-sustaining care from Nikki without first getting “confirmation” from some unidentified Anderson County judicial official that Nikki’s maternal grandparents had legal authority to make this decision, which was untrue. Only now, through the new podcast, did Mr. Roberson’s attorneys learn that the Anderson County official was Judge Bentley, who presided over a trial littered with error and due process violations.

“Certainly, one can have compassion for judges in a small, tight-knit community dealing with the shock that a little girl has suddenly died, just a few months after these same judges awarded her father full custody. But judges should not be in the business of presuming guilt, overriding the law, violating a man’s rights, and then concealing it all. This kind of conflict should have been disclosed and led to the judge’s recusal. We had no idea until now that Judge Bentley, the trial judge, authorized Nikki’s grandparents to override Robert’s parental rights in this disturbing way so that they could hasten the end of her life and facilitate her father’s arrest for murder,” said Sween.

Sween further emphasized: “Texas should not be moving forward with this execution given everything we already knew. And now? What we are only now discovering? I did not think the State’s case could get any worse.”

Concerns about Mr. Roberson’s innocence have generated a groundswell of support in Texas, nationally, and internationally, including from the former lead detective in the case, highly credentialed medical experts, Autism advocates, parental rights groups, Texas lawmakers, exonerees, and more. Mr. Roberson was nearly executed last year but was spared through the intervention of a bipartisan group of Texas lawmakers, unprecedented developments that cannot be repeated. Yet the quest for a thorough reexamination of his wrongful conviction continues. To date, more than 200,000 people have signed petitions urging Texas not to execute Mr. Roberson.

One powerful voice calling on Texas to prevent an irreparable injustice is best-selling author John Grisham. On September 10, Mr. Grisham revealed that his next book, “Shaken: The Rush to Execute an Innocent Man,” will be published in June 2026. Mr. Grisham said in announcing the book, “The wrongful conviction of Robert Roberson has been an ongoing tragedy for over twenty years. If it now becomes a wrongful execution, it will live in infamy. We don’t know its final chapter, but I’ll be there to record the outcome.”

On September 4, the Center for Integrity in Forensic Sciences released an open letter to Texas authorities signed by nearly two dozen exonerees. At a press conference announcing the letter, four exonerees – two of whom were, like Mr. Roberson, wrongfully convicted based on the SBS hypothesis – urged Texas authorities to stop his wrongful execution.

On September 24, the Autism Society of Texas and Autism Society of America issued an open letter that similarly called on Texas authorities to prevent Mr. Roberson’s wrongful execution. Those organizations also hosted a webinarentitled “Robert Roberson, Autism, and Injustice,” at which four renowned experts in Autism discussed how individuals like Mr. Roberson who are on the Autism spectrum are often misjudged and mistreated in courtrooms, police interactions, and incarceration settings. A recording of the program is available here.

On October 1, Texas State Representative Lacey Hull (R), Texas Right to Life, Family Freedom Project, family members wrongly accused of child abuse, and Crime Stoppers spoke on the impact of false allegations of child abuse by medical practitioners and the importance of due process in protecting parental and patient’s rights in end-of-life decisions. Mr. Roberson’s daughter was removed from life-sustaining treatment without her father’s knowledge or consent and in violation of Mr. Roberson’s and Nikki’s rights. Citing the evidence of Mr. Roberson’s innocence and the many flaws in his case, Crime Stoppers Houston called on Texas to grant Mr. Roberson a new trial.

At a rally on October 4, more than 100 supporters chanted “the whole world is watching” as speakers exhorted Texas not to execute Mr. Roberson. In a statement read by emcee Nan Tolson of Texas Conservatives Concerned About The Death Penalty, State Representative Brian Harrison (R) explained that he strongly supports the death penalty, but: “it is actually because of my support for the death penalty that I have been compelled to speak out in the Robert Roberson case. I believe it is most incumbent on those of us who support the death penalty to be the most vigilant in ensuring potentially innocent people are never subjected to it. Executing a potentially innocent person who has never had due process, and who has not had a fair trial, is the opposite of justice!”

State Representative John Bucy, III (D) expressed profound concern that “Texas is about to make a horrible mistake.” He urged the Governor to prevent this injustice, saying: “There is a mountain of evidence before the courts proving that Robert Roberson is innocent, and Governor Abbott can ensure they have time to review it by granting a 30-day reprieve.”

Other speakers included former lead detective Brian Wharton, exoneree Josh Burns, Jacquie Benestante of the Autism Society of Texas, Mr. Roberson’s longtime spiritual advisor Donna Farmer, and attorney Gretchen Sween. Tom Mooney of Bikers for Christ read a statement from Mr. Roberson thanking his supporters and Ms. Sween read a statement from author John Grisham.

Mr. Roberson was a Special Education student when he dropped out of school after the 9^th grade and is a person with long-undiagnosed Autism Spectrum Disorder. In 2002, Mr. Roberson’s two-year old, chronically ill daughter, Nikki, was sick with a high fever and undiagnosed pneumonia when she suffered a short fall from bed. Doctors had prescribed her Phenergan, a powerful medication that is no longer prescribed to children Nikki’s age and in her condition because of its respiratory-suppressing effects. She was also prescribed Codeine, a narcotic, not recommended for anyone under age eighteen.

Mr. Roberson took Nikki to the emergency room, where hospital staff did not know he had Autism and judged his response to his daughter’s grave condition as lacking emotion. The police and prosecutors similarly rushed to judgment and, after Nikki was taken off life support without his knowledge or consent, Mr. Roberson was prosecuted, convicted, and sentenced to death under the now-discredited “Shaken Baby Syndrome” (SBS) hypothesis. The child abuse pediatrician who made the SBS diagnosis did not review Nikki’s medical history documenting a history of unexplained breathing apnea and dangerous prescriptions contra-indicated for a child with respiratory issues; the medical examiner who performed Nikki’s autopsy did not even review the records from her last hospitalization, including CT scans of Nikki’s head establishing she had no skull fractures or any evidence of a battery when admitted to the hospital.