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A Texas man this week could become the first person to be executed in the U.S. convicted of a murder linked to a diagnosis of shaken baby syndrome. The Texas Board of Parole voted 6-0 Wednesday against recommending clemency for Robert Roberson, who is scheduled to receive a lethal injection Thursday. The board refused to give him even 180 days’ extension. Republican Governor Greg Abbott can grant clemency only after receiving a recommendation from the board, which has come under public bipartisan pressure in recent weeks to save Roberson’s life.
Roberson, 57, is scheduled to be executed for the 2002 murder of her 2-year-old daughter, Nikki Curtis. His lawyers have demanded a stay on the execution from the US Supreme Court.
Roberson has long proclaimed his innocence. His attorneys, as well as a bipartisan group of Texas lawmakers, medical experts and others, do not deny that head and other injuries caused by child abuse are real. But they argue that his conviction was based on flawed and now outdated scientific evidence and say new evidence showed that Curtis died from complications related to severe pneumonia. But prosecutors say Roberson’s new evidence does not refute their case that Curtis died from injuries inflicted by his father.
Roberson’s scheduled execution reignited the debate over shaken baby syndrome. On one side of the debate are lawyers and some in the medical and scientific communities who argue that the diagnosis of shaken baby is flawed and has led to wrongful convictions. On the other side are prosecutors and medical societies in the US and around the world who say the diagnosis is valid, scientifically proven and is the leading cause of fatal head injuries in children under 2 years of age.
Here’s what to know about Roberson’s highly scrutinized diagnosis before her scheduled execution:
What is shaken baby syndrome?
The diagnosis refers to a severe brain injury that occurs when a child’s head is injured by a shaking or other violent impact, such as being slammed against a wall or thrown to the floor, usually by an adult. By a caregiver, said Dr. Suzanne Haney, a child abuse researcher. Pediatrician and member of the American Academy of Pediatrics Council on Child Abuse and Neglect.
In 2009, the term was changed to abusive head trauma, which is a more inclusive diagnosis, Haney said. According to the National Center on Shaken Baby Syndrome, there are approximately 1,300 cases of shaken baby syndrome/abusive head trauma each year in the US.
What is the debate over shaken baby syndrome?
Critics allege that whenever a trinity of symptoms – bleeding around the brain, swelling in the brain and bleeding in the eyes – were found, doctors focused on the conclusion of child abuse due to shaken baby syndrome. Critics say doctors have not considered that small falls and naturally occurring diseases, such as pneumonia, can be caused by head injuries similar to head injuries.
Roberson’s attorneys and other supporters are not saying child abuse doesn’t exist or that shaking a child is safe, said Kate Judson, executive director of the Center for Integrity in Forensic Sciences, a Wisconsin-based nonprofit that seeks to improve credibility. Is. Forensic Science Evidence.
“This is a case about whether someone was misdiagnosed and justice was denied,” Judson said. While Haney declined to comment on Roberson’s case, he said there is no disagreement among the vast majority of the medical community about the validity and science behind the diagnosis. Haney said doctors are not just focusing on a series of symptoms to determine child abuse, but are looking at everything possible, including any illnesses that may have caused the injuries.
Haney said, “I worry that the backlash against abusive head trauma as a diagnosis will interfere with prevention efforts and therefore allow more children to be harmed.” Judson said she believes that in Roberson’s case doctors did not consider all possible causes, including illness, to explain what happened to her daughter and focused solely on child abuse as a result of the trio of symptoms. Used.
What concerns are Roberson’s supporters raising?
Roberson’s lawyers say he was wrongly arrested and later convicted after taking his daughter to the hospital. She collapsed from her bed in her home in the East Texas town of Palestine after being seriously ill for a week.
Roberson’s attorney, Gretchen Sween, said new evidence collected since her 2003 trial shows that her daughter died from undiagnosed pneumonia, which turned into sepsis and possibly died from the drugs she was given. were not prescribed and it became difficult for him to breathe. The Anderson County District Attorney’s Office, which prosecuted Roberson, said in court documents that after a 2022 hearing to consider new evidence, a judge rejected theories that pneumonia and other illnesses caused Curtis’s death. Hui.
What have the courts said about shaken baby syndrome?
In recent years, courts across the country, including California, Ohio, Massachusetts and Michigan, have overturned convictions or dropped charges centered on shaken baby syndrome. In a ruling last week in a separate shaken baby syndrome case in Dallas County, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals ordered a new trial after finding scientific advances related to the diagnosis would now likely result in an acquittal in that case.
But the appeals court has repeatedly rejected Roberson’s requests to stay his execution, most recently on Friday. At least eight people have been sentenced to death in the United States because of shaken baby syndrome, said Robin Maher, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center. Of these eight, two have been acquitted and Roberson is the only person to receive execution dates.
“According to the National Registry of Exonerations, at least 30 people across the country have been exonerated based on this discredited scientific theory,” Maher said. But Danielle Vazquez, executive director of the Utah-based National Center on Shaken Baby Syndrome, said a 2021 research article found that 97% of more than 1,400 convictions related to shaken baby syndrome/abusive head trauma from 2008 to 2018 were upheld. and such convictions have rarely been overturned on the basis of medical evidence.
Vazquez said her organization is concerned that because of the doubts that have been raised about the diagnosis, some parents or caregivers may mistakenly think that shaking a baby is not harmful.
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