Judge sets Robert Roberson’s execution date for Oct. 16

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PALESTINE – Robert Roberson's execution date is set for Oct. 16, after a state judge on Wednesday sided with Attorney General Ken Paxton's request.

Roberson, who was found guilty of killing his 2-year-old daughter Nikki in 2003, recently appealed the conviction after claiming innocence for 22 years. A bipartisan group of Texas lawmakers delayed the execution in October 2024. Paxton requested the court proceed with the execution on Oct. 16.

Wednesday’s decision by Smith County District Judge Austin Reeve Jackson in Anderson County, where Roberson’s case was first heard 20 years ago, sets a ticking timer on Roberson’s life as the death row inmate fights to prove his innocence.

“We're not asking for Robert to walk out into the sunset. We're asking for a new trial,” said Gretchen Sween, Roberson’s attorney, in a press conference following Jackson’s decision.

Roberson’s brother, Thomas, attended the proceedings as a member of the Texas Death Penalty Abolition Movement, carrying a sign with his brother’s image and the words “NO MORE EXECUTIONS”.

“Ever since the beginning, he claimed his innocence and he never gave up,” Thomas said, adding that he believes his brother’s life will be saved. “With God, anything is possible.”

Roberson filed an appeal of the conviction with the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals in February after his attorneys said there is new scientific evidence suggesting the shaken baby theory was wrong. The court has not yet considered the appeal, although it has rejected Roberson’s previous appeals and upheld his death sentence.

“It appears at this point there is no legal basis for prohibiting setting an execution date,” said Jackson.

Jackson said he didn’t know why the state’s highest criminal court had not yet taken up Roberson’s most recent appeal. Jackson expressed concern about abusing the system with the repeated appeals and said, “Don’t we have to, at some point, set a date?”

Roberson’s attorneys have sought relief six times, Sween said during the hearing, adding that there is nothing in state law requiring the state move forward with the execution date. But there is precedent for staying an execution until the appeals have been exhausted, she said.

When asked how long an appeal is usually considered, Sween told reporters after the hearing that the appeals court should have breathing room to consider the case without external pressures.

Now, the court has 91 days to consider taking up Roberson’s case, Sween said.

“What we have are these procedural bars to getting at the truth and reviewing the evidence,” Sween said.

Now, Roberson will be placed on a 24-hour death watch until his execution date. He will be prohibited from participating in programs in the prison that had helped him, Sween said.

Roberson’s legal team say they can prove Nikki’s death was natural and accidental — a result of the medications prescribed to treat her illness in the days leading up to her death.

In 2002, Nikki was sick with a high fever, according to the Innocence Project, a nonprofit legal defense organization which has taken up Roberson’s case alongside his legal team. Her parents took her to the doctor multiple times over the course of several days and she was prescribed medications that are now prohibited from use in children of her age, the Innocence Project states in a case write-up.

Roberson put Nikki to bed, and when he awoke in the morning he found her unconscious and her lips were blue, according to the Innocence Project. On Jan. 31, 2002, he took her to the emergency room, where she was intubated. They determined she had already experienced brain death. She died the next day.

Prosecutors said in 2003 that Nikki’s death was caused by shaken baby syndrome, which the Mayo Clinic defined as “a serious brain injury that results from forcefully shaking an infant or a toddler.”

“They arrested the man based on this shaken baby syndrome diagnosis that has been completely discredited even by those who still believe it's a thing,” Sween said. “The version used to convict him is no longer accepted by anyone.”

Roberson’s attorneys call the 2003 findings junk science, and cite the overturned conviction of Andrew Wayne Roark, who was also found guilty of violently shaking a young child in 2000. Roark was later exonerated.

Paxton has railed against the possibility of Roberson’s exoneration. When lawmakers — led by Reps. Jeff Leach, R-Allen, and Joe Moody, D-El Paso — fought to have Roberson testify before a legislative committee last fall, Paxton called the move a scheme to undermine Texas’ justice system.

“Jeff Leach and his associates violated the separation of powers enshrined in the Texas Constitution: they conspired to block the lawful execution of a man convicted of murdering his two-year-old daughter, Nikki,” Paxton said in a November 2024 press release. “Ensuring justice for murder victims is one of my most sacred responsibilities as Attorney General, and we fought every step of the way for her.”

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