Citing New Expert Reports And Other Evidence Supporting His Innocence, Robert Roberson Again Asks Texas Court of Criminal Appeals To Overturn His Wrongful “Shaken Baby” Conviction

Independent Pathologists Conclude 2002 Autopsy Results Are “Not Reliable”

(Austin, Texas, February 19, 2025) Today, Robert Roberson asked the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals (CCA) again to grant relief based on significant new evidence supporting his actual innocence. The “subsequent application” for habeas corpus relief includes new expert opinions and cites further scientific developments since the CCA recognized in an October 2024 case – indistinguishable from Roberson’s – that the purported scientific basis for the “Shaken Baby” conviction is unreliable. This information, the application explains, “demonstrates that (1) no rational juror would find Roberson guilty of capital murder; and (2) unreliable and outdated scientific and medical evidence was material to his conviction.” 

Roberson, a Special Education student when he dropped out of school after the 9^th grade and a person with Autism Spectrum Disorder, is an innocent father who has spent over 20 years on death row in Texas for a crime that never occurred. He was nearly executed on October 17, 2024, but his execution was stayed when a bipartisan group of Texas lawmakers acted to prevent an irreparable injustice. Concerns about Roberson’s innocence have generated a groundswell of support in Texas, nationally, and internationally.

Today’s filing, available here, is his latest effort to persuade the CCA to consider the voluminous evidence proving his innocence and to overturn his wrongful conviction.

In 2002, 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 approved for 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. 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 tragically died, Roberson was prosecuted, convicted, and sentenced to death under the now-discredited Shaken Baby Syndrome hypothesis.

Roberson has been fighting for his life as the State of Texas refuses to acknowledge the evidence of his innocence while he remains at high risk of execution. He has presented extensive new medical and scientific evidence from highly qualified experts showing that Nikki actually died of severe viral and bacterial pneumonia that medical professionals missed in 2002, not any abuse. Her illness progressed to sepsis and then septic shock, a process likely exacerbated by the dangerous respiratory-suppressing medications she was prescribed during her last days. The medical evidence also shows that she had DIC, a blood-clotting disorder brought on by her advanced infection, which made her more susceptible to internal bleeding and bruising.

Today’s filing asks the CCA to declare Roberson innocent, grant him a new trial, or at the very least send his case back to the district court for further fact-finding based on the following new evidence bolstering his already overwhelming case of innocence:

• New legal and scientific developments that further undermine the invalid SBS hypothesis used to arrest, convict, and sentenced Roberson to death. These important developments include the CCA’s October 2024 decision in Ex Parte Roark, invalidating the wrongful SBS conviction of a man whose case is indistinguishable from Roberson’s in all material respects;

• The affidavit of Dr. Michael Laposata, a pathologist with special expertise in bleeding disorders, further corroborating and expanding upon the many expert assessments concluding that Nikki’s death was not a homicide;

• The joint statement of 10 independent pathologists attesting to the unreliability of the cause and manner of death conclusions reached by the medical examiner who performed the autopsy on Nikki in 2002, without considering numerous highly relevant factors demonstrating her death was not a homicide;

• Extensive testimony before the Texas House Committee on Criminal Jurisprudence in October and December 2024 addressing concerns that the CCA has not applied Texas’s changed-science law, Article 11.073, as the Legislature intended either generally or specifically in Roberson’s case;

• The Interim Report of the Texas House Committee on Criminal Jurisprudence from November 19, 2024, addressing the correct application of Article 11.073 and the Legislature’s serious concerns about Roberson’s wrongful conviction;

• Other new information, including declarations from witnesses attesting to Roberson’s deep love for his daughter and refuting the character smears the State has lodged against him in its relentless efforts to cling to a wrongful conviction.

Today’s filing explains that this new evidence, in addition to the wealth of evidence already submitted to the CCA that it has refused to consider up to now, amply demonstrates that no rational juror, if provided with all available information, could have found Roberson guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.

This filing continues Roberson’s efforts to have the CCA consider the voluminous medical and scientific evidence supporting his claims that he is actually innocent and that changed science warrants a new trial. To date, no court has been willing to even consider the new evidence showing how Nikki died of pneumonia and the other proof that Roberson is innocent of any crime. Repeatedly, Roberson has been denied all relief based on unexplained “procedural bars” without any consideration of the merits of his claims. Today’s filing adds even more new evidence to the scale in support of his innocence. He hopes there will finally be a careful and substantive review by the state’s highest criminal court.

The CCA Itself Has Recognized That the “Shaken Baby” Hypothesis Used to Convict Roberson is Scientifically Unfounded 

Today’s filing calls the CCA’s attention to its own recent decision in Ex Parte Roark, announced on October 9, 2024, just a week before Roberson was scheduled for execution. In that case, the Court overturned a conviction based on the same dubious “Shaken Baby Syndrome” hypothesis supported by unreliable testimony from the very same “Child Abuse Pediatrician” who testified for the State in Roberson’s trial 2003 trial.

Dr. Janet Squires’ SBS diagnosis, based on assumptions that have not withstood the test of time, “was used to arrest, and her trial testimony to convict both Roark and Roberson.” (Application p.2) In Roark, the CCA ruled: “We find that scientific knowledge has evolved regarding SBS and its application in Applicant’s case. In addition, we find that given further study, the experts would have given a different opinion on several issues at a trial today—some already have. The admissible scientific testimony at trial today would likely justify an acquittal.” Ex Parte Roark, 2024 WL 4446858 at *23 (Tex. Ct. Crim. App. 2024). Roberson’s application urges the CCA to apply this same rationale to his case as well.

When both Roark and Roberson were convicted, the consensus in the medical community was that a child must have been violently shaken, and possibly struck against a blunt surface, whenever the child had the triad of symptoms observed in Nikki: bleeding under the dura membrane outside of the brain; brain swelling; and bleeding in the eyes. The consensus in the medical community at that time, was that naturally occurring illnesses or short falls with an impact to the head could not cause this triad of symptoms. The CCA has, however, acknowledged in Ex parte Roark, that that belief is false.

The medical consensus at the time of trial also presumed that whoever had been caring for the child when she lost consciousness must have been the culprit because violent shaking would cause immediate brain damage, another false assumption. Parents, like Roberson, who denied doing anything to hurt the child, were perceived as callous liars.

Each of the SBS premises considered medical orthodoxy when the Roark and Roberson trials occurred has since been dismantled by evidence-based science, as the CCA acknowledged in Roark. In other words, none of the SBS principles shared with Roberson’s jury as “scientific” fact were actually grounded in science and each has since been debunked by empirical research. Today’s application explains: “The Roark and Roberson cases are indistinguishable in all material respects.” (p.11). As in Roark, Roberson’s conviction must also be overturned.

Since 1992, at least 40 parents and caregivers in 20 states plus the military have been exonerated after being wrongfully convicted under the “Shaken Baby” hypothesis, according to the National Registry of Exonerations.

Today’s filing also calls the CCA’s attention to the November 2024 recusal of the district judge who had previously recommended denying Roberson relief after adopting, virtually wholesale, a summary of evidence drafted by the Anderson County District Attorney’s Office. (Application pp.16, 118) The application explains that this recusal underscores the lack of due process he has received and the need for the CCA to reconsider Roberson’s case and, at a bare minimum, remand for further fact-finding before a new judge.

New Expert Analyses Confirm Nikki’s Death Was Caused by Illness and Accident, Not Abuse

Today’s filing is supported by the new affidavit of Dr. Michael Laposata, a pathologist with more than 40 years of expertise in coagulation and bleeding disorders. Dr. Laposata reviewed Nikki’s medical records, autopsy file, and other available information and determined that the available records clearly show Nikki was suffering from Disseminated Intravascular Coagulation (DIC), a clotting disorder. DIC in toddlers is most commonly caused by serious infection such as the pneumonia Nikki’s doctors had missed.

In Dr. Laposata’s opinion: “All of the findings in Nikki’s case associated with bleeding are clearly reflective of the presence of DIC.” (Laposata Aff. p.7)

Dr. Laposata explains that bruising and bleeding the medical examiner attributed to “multiple impact” sites were, in reality, attributable to DIC. He explains: “The most plausible explanation for Nikki Curtis’ bleeding and bruising is the development of DIC starting months before the events which took her life.” (Laposata Aff. p.8)

Dr. Laposata explains that DIC is “a major bleeding problem” (Laposata Aff. p.7) that causes a person to use up their clotting factors, followed by bleeding throughout the body. The emergency resuscitation that Nikki underwent in the hospital likely caused bleeding under her skin, producing the bruises that appeared only after her arrival at the hospital. Another sign of Nikki’s DIC is the more extensive bleeding observed outside the brain during her autopsy that was not present when CT scans were made of her head soon after her initial arrival at the ER.

Dr. Laposata also reviewed the reports of three other experts representing a range of medical specialties, explaining exactly how Nikki died. Dr. Laposata finds their conclusions entirely consistent with his own (Laposata Aff. p.10). Those opinions include:

• Dr. Francis Green,an expert with nearly 50 years experience in lung pathology, reviewed Nikki’s medical history and her lung tissue under a microscope. His detailed report explains that Nikki’s lungs were infected with both viral and bacterial pneumonia that had devastating effects, starving her brain of oxygen and causing her death. Dr. Green’s detailed analysis shows that Nikki’s pneumonia started many days or weeks before her final hospitalization. His report also makes clear that Nikki’s lung condition could not have been caused by inflicted trauma nor can it be explained by the fact that she was on a ventilator during her final hospitalization, thoroughly rebutting the State’s prosecution theory that Nikki died from inflicted head trauma.
• Dr. Keenan Bora,an expert in medical toxicology and emergency room medicine, concluded that a post-mortem toxicology report shows that Nikki had dangerously high levels of promethazine in her system, a drug which had been prescribed by two different doctors on two consecutive days. Promethazine is a drug no longer prescribed to children Nikki’s age and in her condition precisely because it can cause fatal respiratory arrest. Dr. Bora concluded that this drug exacerbated Nikki’s breathing problems and likely hastened her death from the pneumonia, which her body was unable to fight off, leading to sepsis and then septic shock, such that vital organs shut down.
• Dr. Julie Mack, an expert in pediatric radiology, concluded that the initial CT scans of Nikki’s head show only a single impact site on her head (swollen tissue with no corresponding skull fracture.) Dr. Mack reviewed CT scans finally discovered in the courthouse basement in 2018 that had been kept from Roberson for 15 years. As interpreted by the only type of expert qualified to read them, the scans corroborate Roberson’s statement at the hospital that Nikki had fallen out of bed and possibly hit her head. Dr. Mack also reviewed chest x-rays of Nikki, some produced to Roberson’s counsel only in 2018 and others only in 2024. Dr. Mack concluded that these chest x-rays corroborate Dr. Green’s conclusion that Nikki’s lungs were infected (with pneumonia.)

Roberson’s new habeas application is also supported by the Joint Statement of 10 pathologists. These independent experts have reviewed the facts and identified significant flaws in the medical examiner’s methodology that preclude reliance on her conclusions, including her failure to review any of Nikki’s available medical records.

These pathologists conclude: “the 2002 autopsy performed on Nikki Curtis is not reliable.” (Joint Statement p.2)

The pathologists also express astonishment that the medical examiner has refused to consider material new evidence that entirely undermines her 2002 conclusions. “A forensic pathologist faced with new medical evidence or changed science should be willing to reconsider any previous opinions,” they explain. (Joint Statement p.3) They, too, agree that the evidence suggests Nikki’s death was caused by her illness and improper medications. (Joint Statement pp.3-4) They stress that relying on conclusions derived from an obviously inadequate investigation to support Roberson’s criminal conviction threatens “the integrity of the entire practice of making cause and manner determinations” in cases where children die in a caregiver’s custody. (Joint Statement p.4)

Legislative Testimony and Report Show “Changed Science” Law Has Not Been Correctly Applied in Roberson’s Case

Roberson is alive today because a bipartisan group of Texas lawmakers chose to dig deep into the facts of his case. On October 16 and 21 and December 20, 2024, the House Committee on Criminal Jurisprudence held hearings about whether Article 11.073, the changed-science law Texas lawmakers passed over a decade ago for innocent people like him, is being applied as intended. These hearings demonstrated that Roberson’s case exemplifies how this ground-breaking law has failed to fulfill its promise of granting relief to innocent people who were wrongfully convicted based on subsequently discredited science.

In today’s filings, Roberson asks the CCA to consider the testimony presented during the legislative hearings that establishes, through expert analysis, that Nikki died of pneumonia, exacerbated by improper medications, and how the progression of her disease, along with medical intervention, affected her body by the time the autopsy was performed. The hearing witnesses also explained the absence of evidence of “battery,” or any other abuse and showed that the State’s view of the case is untethered to science or their own evidence at trial.

Lead detective Brian Wharton also testified that Roberson’s case involved a rush to judgment based on flawed medical information and exacerbated by Roberson’s Autism. Dr. Phil McGraw testified in support of Roberson and highlighted that the word “shake” or one of its derivatives was used so many times during Roberson’s trial that he stopped counting.

The record of the legislative hearings also shows that the District Attorney admitted she had not even read any of the new expert medical reports supporting Roberson’s innocence. Lawmakers were dismayed that she could not answer the most basic questions about the facts of the case. These hearings exposed the lack of process Roberson has received in the courts. Over and over, the legislators made clear that the Texas courts had plainly not applied Texas law either as written or as the Legislature intended in adjudicating Roberson’s case.

As part of their investigation into the courts’ flawed implementation of state law, the lawmakers subpoenaed Roberson to appear at a hearing on October 21, 2024, which temporarily stayed his October 17 scheduled execution. Leadership with the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) immediately agreed to facilitate Roberson’s appearance before the lawmakers at the Capitol. But then the Office of Attorney General intervened and blocked the plan for compliance with the subpoena. On November 15, 2024, the Supreme Court of Texas said that subpoena, though valid, could not block a scheduled execution—and thus the testimony should be obtained with that limitation in mind. The Legislators continued to seek Roberson’s testimony, and the Attorney General has continued to block them from doing so.

On November 19, 2024, the House Committee on Criminal Jurisprudence released an Interim Report, one of the important pieces of new evidence supporting today’s filing. With regard to Roberson’s case, the Committee said it “highlighted not just an individual injustice, but the unfulfilled promise of what was intended to be a pioneering Texas law.” The case also “exposed critical problems in both appellate procedure and how our system responds to people with neurodivergence.” (Interim Report p.21)

Roberson’s Case Has Gained Widespread, Bipartisan Support 

Today’s filing also calls the CCA’s attention to new declarations refuting the attacks on Roberson’s character the State has levied in an effort to cling to a wrongful conviction, as well as evidence of the overwhelming support for Roberson’s innocence. That support is demonstrated by the many letters submitted in support of his petition for clemency and widespread news and editorial coverage.

Letters supporting clemency for Roberson were submitted by dozens of individuals and groups, including:

• A bipartisan group of nearly 100 Texas lawmakers;
• 34 Scientists and medical professionals;
• Advocates for people with autism and their families;
• Parental rights advocates;
• Former judges;
• 70 Attorneys who have represented those wrongfully accused under the “shaken baby” hypothesis;
• Faith leaders;
• Exonerees;
• Family and friends who know and love Roberson.

These letters are included with today’s filing along with an in-depth profile about Roberson’s case written by best-selling novelist John Grisham.