Gov. Abbott must stop this execution

The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles and Gov. Greg Abbott routinely considers clemency petitions from condemned prisoners and those petitions are ordinarily denied. But there is nothing ordinary about the clemency request from Robert Roberson, who is scheduled to die on Oct. 17. That is because Roberson is on death row, even though a mountain of evidence now demonstrates not only his innocence, but that no crime took place. The board and governor must not allow Roberson to be executed.

We come to this case from different perspectives and different paths. Both of us, however, are united in our profound concern that Texas may execute an innocent man.

Roberson’s conviction in Anderson County resulted from two grievous errors. The first was that when he brought his very ill toddler, Nikki, to the emergency room in Palestine in 2002, hospital staff concluded that her condition was caused by abuse, soon diagnosed as “shaken baby syndrome,” a since-debunked hypothesis used to explain her mysterious internal head condition.

The doctors and nurses apparently did not consider that Nikki had been seriously ill in the preceding days and weeks. Nor did they consider how she had been prescribed respiration-suppressing medications when she had been having documented respiratory problems.

The second error was the failure by those involved to recognize or understand Robert Roberson’s autism. Instead, they treated his flat exterior as heartlessness, and thus an indication that he was a person capable of harming his child.

Today, we know the truth about what likely happened. Robert never harmed his beloved daughter. Nikki died from an accidental short fall in the night as she struggled to breathe due to a severe undiagnosed pneumonia and medications that made her breathing difficulties worse. The tragedy of Nikki’s death has now been compounded by her father’s conviction and death sentence.

No one has ever been executed in the US based on the debunked science of shaken baby syndrome, and many of those so convicted have since been exonerated and released.

We hope the Pardons and Paroles Board and Gov. Abbott will consider the strength and breadth of the bipartisan support for Roberson’s clemency request. Nearly three dozen eminent scientists and doctors have written to explain why the so-called science used to convict Roberson is unreliable. Texas parental rights advocates, autism-advocacy organizations, and 86 Texas legislators, including 30 Republicans, are supporting clemency for Roberson.

Perhaps the most meaningful voice calling for Abbott to spare Roberson’s life is that of Brian Wharton, the lead detective in Palestine who investigated the case, ordered Roberson’s arrest and testified against him at trial. It is extremely rare for anyone involved on the law enforcement side of a conviction to admit a mistake was made. In Roberson’s case, Wharton not only acknowledges that the state got it wrong, he has met with Roberson on death row to seek his forgiveness. In doing so, he has recognized that the demeanor that appeared odd or cold during the police interrogations was simply a manifestation of Roberson’s autism in response to intense distress over Nikki’s illness and death.

It is very, very hard to overturn a conviction, even when someone in law enforcement acknowledges error. Because the medical evidence showing that Nikki died from septic shock caused by pneumonia and prescription medications was not discovered until years after Roberson’s conviction, and because Roberson was not evaluated for and diagnosed with autism until long after his trial, the courts have refused to step in . That leaves Abbott and the Board of Pardons and Paroles as the last chance for Texas to avoid making an irreparable and immoral mistake.

We have different views about capital punishment, but we agree on this: If the system is to retain any legitimacy, it must never be used against an innocent person, and especially not in a case where no crime took place. We urge Gov. Abbott and the board to heed the widespread calls for justice in Roberson’s case and grant him clemency.

John Grisham is the best-selling author of more than 50 fiction and nonfiction books. He serves on the board of the Innocence Project. Doug Deason is the president of the Deason Foundation and of Deason Capital Services.

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