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Robert Roberson was handcuffed behind his back when he was brought into the Texas death row media interview area.
The guard locked him into a small cell. The cuffs were removed through a thin slot in the steel door. One side of the cell was bulletproof glass, and on the wall was an old-style telephone handset.
I was on the other side of that glass and on the end of the phone. Roberson is used to all this. He’s been on death row for over 20 years.
I interviewed Roberson last year when Texas was angling to execute him then. He came within 90 minutes of the lethal injection, but a last-minute legal maneuver saved him.
“I was relieved, not just for myself, but for my loved ones," Roberson told me. "I said, I'm still just as innocent as I was when you all put me in there."
In July, Texas assigned Roberson another execution date.
“Here we are again. Like they gave me another date, and the evidence has shown that I didn't do it. It wasn't even a crime committed," Roberson said. "So it was like, what do we have to do to prove it?”
In 2003, Roberson was sentenced to die for the death of his chronically ill 2-year-old daughter, Nikki Curtis. Prosecutors based their case on the now-discredited theory of shaken baby syndrome. Nikki had contracted pneumonia. She had a fever of over 104 degrees, and doctors had given her codeine and other medications that suppressed her breathing.
But Roberson said when he showed up at the hospital with Nikki in his arms, she was turning blue — and he was immediately labeled a suspect in a shaken baby syndrome murder.
“Well, they acted real suspicious and stuff. And the way they was talking and stuff, acting like I was guilty and stuff. ... They didn't believe my story. Then they called the detectives in.”
Brian Wharton was a detective with the Palestine Police Department and was called to the hospital.
“There was immediately an allegation of child abuse," Wharton said. "And then at some point along the way, conversation about a shaken baby injury came into the conversation.”
Wharton said Roberson’s behavior made him an easy suspect. And they zeroed in on him. What they were perceiving were behaviors that someone on the autism spectrum might have. For example, Roberson didn't make eye contact. He didn't show his sorrow or worry.
“We just need to find the responsible party and make the case. And that's the kind of thinking that gets you in trouble. We're going to make the case rather than we're going to seek justice for this child. And that's what we did," Wharton said.
Roberson said he was stunned when he was arrested.
“I said, how can they accuse me of it? I carried her up and stuff, and it's already bad enough that Nicki's dying and stuff in this position. And what I asked people, what would you done if it was your child? And I don't wish that on no parents," Roberson said.
Wharton now thinks he got it wrong that day, and Roberson is innocent. And others agree, including Katherine Judson, director of The Center for Integrity in Forensic Sciences.
“In the two decades that have passed since Mr. Roberson's trial, evidence-based science has roundly debunked the version of the shaken baby syndrome hypothesis that was put before his jury," Judson said.
She added that updated science proves Roberson did not harm his daughter.
“Doctors in that time period were not aware that other phenomena such as falls with head impact or naturally occurring diseases like pneumonia could cause the same constellation of internal conditions that Nikki had," she said.
The American Academy of Pediatrics stands by shaken baby syndrome as a potential cause of death of an infant, but it has not commented directly on Roberson’s case.
In a statement the AAP said: “There is in fact no debate in the medical field that shaken baby syndrome is a real and devastating injury that can lead to lifelong brain damage or death.”
However, the AAP now calls it “abusive head trauma” and advises doctors to be vigilant in looking for other supporting signs of child abuse.
But Judson said Roberson’s case is not about whether shaking can cause injury or whether violent shaking is abusive.
“There's no question that both are true," she said. "This case is about whether doctors can reliably find abuse when a child has a collection of medical findings that are consistent with a variety of causes.”
Judson said that if Roberson was on trial today, new medical evidence would find him innocent of causing Nikki’s death.
In its pursuit of Roberson’s execution, the state of Texas has changed its story on what caused Nikki’s death.
In a 2024 press release, the Texas Attorney General’s Office emphasized that Nikki had extensive bruising indicating blunt force impacts, not just shaking.
This solid physical evidence, they argued, was central to Roberson’s conviction, not the more speculative shaken baby syndrome theory.
However, court records do not support this, and a juror who convicted Roberson said they only considered shaken baby syndrome as a cause of death.
With me, when I visited Roberson, was John Grisham—the novelist and lawyer best known for his best-selling legal thrillers. He came as part of his research for his next book, Shaken: The Rush to Execute an Innocent Man. It’s the story of Robert Roberson and how he ended up on death row.
“It's a kind of last-ditch effort to raise awareness, to get attention, to try to stop the execution,” Grisham said.
He was moved by meeting Roberson. “He's suffered a lot, and that comes across. And he's suffering now, going through the prospect of another countdown to execution."
Grisham is also on the board of the Innocence Project.
According to the National Registry of Exonerations, over 30 individuals convicted based on shaken baby syndrome have been exonerated. Often in these cases, it has been concluded that false or misleading forensic evidence brought about the initial convictions.
Currently, there is an appeal before the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals asking for a new trial for Roberson.
But time is running out—Roberson is set to be executed on October 16, 2025.
