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East Texas death row inmate asks U.S. Supreme Court to delay execution after clemency denial

On Wednesday afternoon, the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles voted against commuting Roberson’s death sentence to life in prison or delaying his execution.

AUSTIN, Texas — The lawyer of an East Texas death row inmate, who was denied clemency Wednesday, is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to delay the man's execution that is set for Thursday.

Robert Roberson III, 57, is set to be executed Thursday in connection with the 2003 conviction in the death of his 2-year-old daughter Nikki Curtis. He has claimed his innocence for roughly two decades with his lawyer citing junk science as the reason for his conviction. According to the Associated Press, Roberson would be the first person in the U.S. to be executed over a "Shaken Baby Syndrome" conviction. 

On Wednesday afternoon, the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles voted against commuting Roberson’s death sentence to life in prison or delaying his execution. As of now, Roberson will be executed Thursday at 6 p.m. 

The petition to the Supreme Court filed on Wednesday reiterates what the defense has already said that Nikki's death was not caused by abuse or violent shaking as suggested in Roberson's 2002 trial. The defense says the now-debunked "Shaken Baby Syndrome" hypothesis was used to convict Roberson. 

Gretchen Sween, one of Roberson’s attorneys, wrote to SCOTUS that Roberson tried to seek relief through Texas' 2013 so-called Junk Science Writ, a law that allows people to challenge wrongful convictions by showing changes in the field of forensic science, but the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals rejected that effort in September. 

 Sween urged the Supreme Court to intervene in the execution that is set to happen Thursday at 6 p.m. 

 Also on Wednesday, Sween asked Gov. Greg Abbott to grant a one-time 30-day postponement of his impending execution. Without input from the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles, Abbott is allowed to grant a 30-day reprieve if he chooses to do so. 

"A reprieve will also give Texas legislators time to investigate why Texas’s vaunted ‘changed science’ habeas law, which allows prisoners to challenge convictions based on science that turns out to be disproven or wrong, is not being applied as intended in the courts," Sween said. 

Also on Wednesday, members of the Texas House of Representatives who are serve on its Committee on Criminal Jurisprudence wrote to the CCA asking for to stay Roberson's execution until the end of the 2025 legislative session, which is scheduled for June 2, 2025. The committee asked for a stay so that the legislature can consider amendments to the 2013 so-called Junk Science Writ, a law that allows people to challenge wrongful convictions by showing changes in the field of forensic science. 

 Sween said the criminal justice system has failed Roberson so badly, and it's shocking that the system hasn't been able to correct itself through the junk science law. 

"We have tried multiple times to utilize that law. Multiple times we have been turned away—without explanation or consideration of the new evidence. We will ask Gov. Abbott to issue a 30-day reprieve so we can continue to pursue Mr. Roberson’s innocence claim," Sween said. "We pray that Gov. Abbott does everything in his power to prevent the tragic, irreversible mistake of executing an innocent man.”

On Monday, Roberson's attorneys filed an application claiming unlawful detention and an emergency motion for stay of execution in the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals as well. 

These filings come after a judge on Tuesday during a hearing in a Anderson County courtroom denied a request to vacate Roberson's execution date.

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