
New execution date set for Texas man Robert Roberson in shaken baby syndrome case
HOUSTON (AP) — A judge on Wednesday set a new execution date for Robert Roberson, a Texas man who won a last-minute reprieve last year and could become the first person in the U.S. to be put to death for a murder conviction tied to a diagnosis of shaken baby syndrome.
State district Judge Austin Reeve Jackson set an Oct. 16 execution date for Roberson during a court hearing.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s office had requested that the execution date be scheduled. Roberson’s lawyers had objected, arguing Roberson still has an appeal pending before the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals that his legal team says contains “powerful new evidence of his innocence.”
Roberson received a last-minute stay last October after a flurry of legal challenges that were prompted by an unprecedented maneuver from a bipartisan group of Texas lawmakers who say he is innocent and was sent to death row based on flawed science.