this post was submitted on 18 Oct 2024
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Texas Supreme Court halts man's execution in shaken baby syndrome case (www.axios.com)
submitted 1 month ago by remington@beehaw.org to c/usnews@beehaw.org
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[–] t3rmit3@beehaw.org 15 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

This is such a sad miscarriage of justice, it truly shows how Texas' leadership (specifically, the Board of Pardons and Paroles) has no regard for life. You literally have the original case detectives saying he is innocent, the main and really only "expert" witness now discredited, the entire "scientific" basis for the case not simply considered unsound, but in fact shown to be effectively impossible... but Texas be like, "if we get the chance to kill someone, no one's gonna take that away from us".

It's set up so that even the governor can't pardon a death row inmate unless the Pardons and Paroles Board first reviews the case and recommends a pardon, which the board has so far declined to do (and while the state supreme court issued a 30 day stay, the BPP still has not- as far as I've read- agreed to a review hearing).

edit: correction, apparently the BPP heard the case on the 16th, and declined to ask for clemency. Unreal.

[–] Powderhorn@beehaw.org 3 points 1 month ago

It's Texas. You get used to this shit after a while. Doesn't mean I'm not eager to get the fuck out, but it really is unbelievable that voters here think state leaders should be elected for life. Even BPP aside, Abbott should have been term limited quite some time back. And Paxton is going to have a fun time when the feds come for him.

But hey, freedom or something.

[–] Rivalarrival 1 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

From wiki:

According to prosecutors, physicians reported that Nikki suffered and ultimately died of "massive head trauma". Prosecutors argued that in the emergency room, Nikki was found to have "[a] bruise on the back of her shoulder, a scraped elbow, a bruise over her right eyebrow, bruises on her chin, a bruise on her left cheek, an abrasion next to her left eye, multiple bruises on the back of her head, a torn frenulum in her mouth, bruising on the inner surface of the lower lip, subscapular and subgaleal hemorrhaging between her skin and her skull, subarachnoid bleeding, subdural hematoma, both pre-retinal and retinal hemorrhages and brain edema."[12] Additionally, four separate doctors testified Nikki had "multiple blows to different points on the head," which could not have been caused by falling off a bed.[13] At trial, Roberson's defense expert admitted that Roberson "lost it" and shook Nikki because he could not stop her from crying.[13]

[–] Midnitte@beehaw.org 4 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

In 2002, Roberson's 2-year-old daughter Nikki was sick with a fever of 104.5. The little girl was born with chronic health problems that were never fully diagnosed. She would frequently stop breathing and turn blue. Over the course of a week, Roberson took the toddler to both the ER and her pediatrician, who prescribed codeine and another powerful drug. Both are respiratory suppressants that medical experts say are no longer prescribed for children.

And in the early morning of January 31, Nikki stopped breathing again.

...the hospital did a CAT scan of little Nikki and found a swollen, bleeding brain believed at the time to be a classic sign of shaken baby syndrome. But now, medical experts point out that pneumonia and starving the brain of oxygen can create those symptoms, and Nikki had both. Source

Seems pretty clear what happened. They didn't investigate shit, and just assumed this discredited theory of SBS was the cause because the father is not neurotypical.

[–] Rivalarrival 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

subscapular and subgaleal hemorrhaging between her skin and her skull, subarachnoid bleeding, subdural hematoma, both pre-retinal and retinal hemorrhages and brain edema.

Translation: he beat the shit out of her.

Remove all the SBS testimony, and you still have him beating the hell out of her. He is not at all innocent.

You can argue against the death penalty in general, but there is no rational argument for his innocence.

[–] Midnitte@beehaw.org 4 points 1 month ago (1 children)

DAVIES: Detective Wharton is now retired, and he traded in his badge for a Bible. Now, the Reverend Wharton says he and the entire system made a mistake. He says he's forever haunted by his role in putting an innocent man on death row, a man he says should be exonerated.

Even the detective think that isn't what happened.

Not so sure it's so clear and cut.

[–] Rivalarrival 2 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

the hospital did a CAT scan of little Nikki and found a swollen, bleeding brain believed at the time to be a classic sign of shaken baby syndrome.

There are, indeed, conditions that will cause a brain to bleed inside the skull. Those conditions don't explain all the head injuries outside the skull: the hematomas and hemmorhaging between the skin and the skull.

If you want to argue against the death penalty, go ahead. I lean against it; you don't have to convince me.

But we do a disservice to every actual innocent convict when we pretend a guilty man is innocent just to avoid a sentence we abhor.

If you want to explain the myriad serious head injuries in some way that absolves him of responsibility, I'm listening.